The Financial Times reports that Benatti filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Milan on March 23. A WPP spokesman said the complaint "has absolutely no merit".
In the acrimonious dispute between the multinational group and its former Italy country manager, WPP has hired corporate investigator Kroll to conduct a fraud investigation into the activities of its Italian media buying operations.
In addition, it is suing Benatti in the UK for breach of contract, while Benatti has already started legal proceedings in Italy against WPP for wrongful dismissal.
In the former case, the High Court issued a default judgment against Benatti on March 9 because he failed to appear in court. He was ordered to pay €207,000 (£142,000) in damages, equivalent to the commission he earned when he advised WPP to acquire media buying agency Mediaclub, in which he secretly held a stake.
However, WPP subsequently asked the court to set aside the judgment to give Benatti time to file with the court a valid acknowledgement of the proceedings after his original acknowledgement proved to be defective.
Benatti's lawyers have questioned the legality of the ruling and his defamation suit is believed to centre on Sorrell's involvement in the press coverage of the ruling.
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