Vatican charges a Cardinal and 9 others with financial crimes - Global Scheme to purloin funds, abuse of position & a violation of fiduciary duty and Public Trust

10 individuals charged and 4 corporate entities named and shamed.

Full Disclosure I’m a quasi-practicing Catholic so don’t think this is me trying to shame my church (well it kind of is) —also a heartfelt hat tip to my anonymous reader who sent me the Vatican’s Press Release - they had remembered my “Open Letter to the Catholic Church” blog entry from 2019 and wanted to make sure I saw the press release and 500 page investigation

Individuals charged:

• René Brülhart, who is accused of abuse of office;

• Msgr. Mauro Carlino, who is accused of extortion and abuse of office;

• Enrico Crasso, who is accused of embezzlement, corruption, extortion, money laundering and self-laundering, fraud, abuse of office, forgery of a public deed committed by a private individual and forgery in a private document;

• Tommaso Di Ruzza, who is accused of embezzlement, abuse of office and breach of confidentiality;

• Cecilia Marogna, who is accused of embezzlement;

• Raffaele Mincione, who is accused of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, embezzlement and self-laundering;

• Nicola Squillace, who is accused of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and self-laundering (she also was an attorney in this unholy mess of greed and thievery)

• Fabrizio Tirabassi, who is accused of corruption, extortion, embezzlement, fraud and abuse of office;

• Gianluigi Torzi, who is accused of extortion, embezzlement, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering andself-laundering;
  

Companies also charged

• HP Finance LLC, referable to Enrico Crasso, to whom the indictment alleges the crime of fraud;

• Logsic Humanitarne Dejavnosti, D.O.O., attributable to Cecilia Marogna, accused of embezzlement;

• Prestige Family Office SA, attributable to Enrico Crasso, who is accused of fraud;

• Sogenel Capital Investment, which can be traced back to Enrico Crasso, to which the indictment alleges the crime of fraud.

The Vatican’s July 3, 2021 Press Release also reads in part:

Some of the aforementioned offences are also alleged to have been committed "in complicity"…

The investigations, launched in July 2019 following a complaint by the Institute for the Works of Religion and the Office of the Auditor General, involved full collaboration between the Office of the Promoter and the Judicial Police Section of the Gendarmerie Corps. The investigations were also carried out in close and fruitful cooperation with the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome and the Economic and Financial Police Unit - G.I.C.E.F. of the Guardia di Finanza of Rome. The cooperation of the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Milan, Bari, Trento, Cagliari and Sassari and their respective judicial police sections was also appreciated.

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu

the Vatican announced that he is “being prosecuted, pursuant to the law, for the crimes of embezzlement and abuse of office, also in collaboration, as well as subornation..”

The investigations, carried out also with rogatory commissions in several other foreign countries;

United Arab Emirates

Great Britain

Jersey

Luxembourg

Slovenia

Switzerland

….have brought to light a vast network of relationships with operators in the financial markets that have generated substantial losses for the Vatican finances, having also drawn on the resources intended for the personal charitable works of the Holy Father.

the press release provides a synopsis for various subcategories - which reads in part:

Mincione’s investment fund

Stealing from the Church isn’t just criminal = it’s unholy and repugnant and I’m heartened to know that the Holy Father didn’t flinch in his pursuit of justice.

A primary and important chapter in the investigation concerns the Secretariat of State’s investment in Raffale Mincione’s Athena Capital Global Opportunities Fund operative between June 2013 and February 2014. The Secretariat of State borrowed 200 million dollars from Credit Suisse to invest in Mincione’s fund (100 million in movable goods, 100 million in immovable goods related to the property in London). The high-risk investment brought a serious loss to the Holy See.

$18Million Euros lost due to this investment

By September 20, 2018, nearly 18 million euro of the initial investment were lost on these shares. The overall loss… “is estimated to be a much larger amount. Mincione used the Vatican’s money in imprudent transactions and in attempts to take over failing banking institutions. Before such disastrous results, the Secretariat of State tried to get out of the investment by purchasing the property”

Torzi and extorsion enter the picture

Secretariat of State to Mincione was paid £40M for his shares….

Secretariat of State decided to entrust the transaction to another broker, Gianluigi Torzi, who later succeeded in maintaining control for himself, circumventing the Holy See, allegedly thanks to internal complicity. From the documentation produced by the Vatican magistrates, it appears that Mincione and Torzi were actually in complicity to execute the transaction with the Secretariat of State.

The Vatican magistrates also indicate that their investigation conclude two important figures in this scheme, Enrico Crasso and Fabrizio Tirabassi

They believe they obtained commissions from Mincione and cash payments from Torzi for bringing him into the Vatican. Thanks to internal complicity

• Torzi managed to get a Share Purchase Agreement signed that removed control of the London property from the Secretariat of State.

• He did this by creating 1,000 shares in GUTT SA and granting voting rights only to these shares he held

• the other 30,000 shares owned by the Secretariat of State did not carry the right to vote. Thus, the Secretariat of State found itself with another broker in the Vatican with sole possession of decision-making power.

Officials deceived €15M extorted

The Vatican magistrates hold that “neither Msgr. Perlasca, who signed the Share Purchase Agreement, nor his Superiors, the Substitute Edgar Peña Parra, and above all Cardinal Pietro Parolin had been effectively informed to be fully aware of the juridical effects that the different categories of actions would cause.”

• The Substitute’s signature, necessary to conclude the agreement because he holds power of attorney…

• Signature was obtained after the fact and without the superiors being made aware of the “tactic” that allowed Torzi to maintain control of everything.

• To obtain control over the property, and force Torzi out of the picture, 15 million euro was extorted from the Secretariat of State through payments to the broker for irregular reasons

• …thanks to the internal complicity of the suspects against whom indictments have been requested.

AIF’s role

…the Vatican magistrates finding that AIF “overlooked the anomalies of the London transaction – of which it had immediately been informed – especially considering the wealth of information acquired as a result of intelligence activity.”

• According to the documentation produced by the prosecution, AIF played “a decisive role in completing the liquidation process of Gianluigi Torzi's claims.”

Cardinal Becciu’s and his brother’s Role:

The Cardinal, former Substitute of the Secretariat of State, did not become a suspect immediately. He became involved because the magistrates accused him of "interference” and allege that he was behind the offers that emerged suddenly at the end of May 2020 to acquire the building, just a few days prior to the interrogation of Torzi.

• Cardinal Becciu also tried to get Perlasca to recant.

• Payments made by the Secretariat of State to Cecilia Marogna at Becciu’s request were added to the investigation.

• Between 20 December 2018 and 11 July 2019, the company she owned received payments made by the Secretariat of State for 575,000 euro.

A letter rogatory allowed the investigation to ascertain that this sum “was mostly used to make purchases that were not compatible, and therefore, unjustifiable, with the corporate purpose of the company” -the magistrates also contend;

• Becciu financed his brother Antonino’s cooperative with 600,000 euro that came from the funds belonging to the Italian Bishops’ Conference and 225,000 euro that came from funds belonging to the Secretariat of State.

• The donations were allegedly “used for purposes other than the charitable purposes for which they were intended.”

A full copy of the Vatican News Report can be found here - also any time I can appropriately use this gif - it’s going to be a good time. Plus this is what I do in their copious free time? Asking for a friend

“bless me father I’ve sinned (yet again)”