A Vatican official already under investigation for money laundering
was arrested after Italian police said they caught him and two other men
plotting a scheme that would bring in €20m in cash into Italy from
Switzerland on a jet.
Prosecutors said Monsignor Nunzio Scarano claimed the money belonged
to some friends, according to The Associated Press. Nunzio’s attorney,
Silverio Sica, told AP that the Vatican official “was a middleman in the
Swiss operation. Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker,
Giovanni Carenzio, to return €20m they had given him to invest.”
The report quoted Sica as saying that Scarano persuaded Carenzio to
return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria
Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian
government aircraft. Such a move would presumably prevent any reporting
of the money coming into Italy.
“The operation failed because Carenzio reneged on the deal. Zito, nevertheless, demanded his €400,000 commission.
“Scarano paid him an initial €200,000 by check. But in a bid not to
have the second instalment of the commission deposited, Scarano filed a
report for a missing €200,000 check, even though he knew Zito had it,”
Sica said.
The New York Times reports that Scarano had been suspended as an
accountant for the Vatican bank, after prosecutors opened an
investigation for money laundering.
“Only priests, religious, Catholic institutions, employees of Vatican
City State and diplomats accredited to the Holy See are allowed to have
accounts at the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Works of
Religion, but rumours have long swirled about whether accounts were used
as fronts for other interests, including organised crime and Italian
politicians.
“In the past, the Italian prelates, who controlled the Vatican Bank,
tended to see any inquiries into possible malfeasance as an attack on
its sovereignty. Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, have
tried to make the Vatican Bank more transparent.
“It was not immediately clear whether the Vatican was cooperating
with Italian authorities or whether the arrests stemmed from several
suspicious transactions – six in 2012 and seven in the first half of
2013 – that Vatican officials said they had flagged and brought to the
attention of the Vatican’s own internal prosecutors.”
Source: Punch
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