Vatican Moscow, UNI/Sputnik: Vatican will try 10 people, including an ex-cardinal and former senior officials from the Secretariat of State, for involvement in a large-scale investment fraud with luxury property in London, according to a Holy See statement.
“The judicial process is directly connected to the directives and reforms [of Pope Francis] in his work of transparency and remediation of Vatican finances, a work that, according to the hypothesis of the prosecution, was countered by illicit and detrimental speculative activities on a reputational level in the terms indicated in the request to press charges," the statement said as quoted by official media Vatican News.
Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who resigned as cardinal in September 2020 once the scandal started to pick up steam, is believed to have misappropriated donations worth 825,000 euro ($973,000) "for purposes other than the charitable purposes for which they were intended," and greenlighted another "unjustified" payment of 575,000 euro by the Secretariat of State to an intelligence company.
Becciu was charged with embezzlement, abuse of office in complicity with others, and subornation.
Other defendants in the case include former President of the Board of Directors of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) of Vatican City Rene Brulhart, who was charged with the crime of abuse of office; the former Secretary of the Substitute of the Secretariat of State Msgr Mauro Carlino, who was charged with extortion and abuse of office; and former Director of the AIF Tommaso Di Ruzza, who was charged with embezzlement and disclosure of official secrets.
A subpoena was also filed against four companies related to people involved in the case.
“Initial activities carried out with rogatorial commissions in numerous foreign countries (United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Jersey, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland) brought to light a vast web of relationships with operators in the financial markets that generated substantial losses for Vatican finances which also drew from those resources destined for the Holy Father’s personal acts of charity," the statement further added.
The first hearing will be held on July 27.
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