Cent Rest Pauls

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Church Finance
  • Church Loans
  • Religious Cash
  • Vatican Finances
  • Finance Debt
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Cent Rest Pauls

Header Banner

Cent Rest Pauls

  • Home
  • Church Finance
  • Church Loans
  • Religious Cash
  • Vatican Finances
  • Finance Debt
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Vatican Finances
Home›Vatican Finances›Cardinal on trial as Vatican financial scandal resumes

Cardinal on trial as Vatican financial scandal resumes

By Sophia Jacob
October 5, 2021
0
0

Published on: 10/05/2021 – 07:44Amended: 10/05/2021 – 07:42

Vatican City (AFP)

The trial of a once powerful Catholic cardinal and nine others resumes Tuesday at the Vatican over alleged financial fraud and a disastrous London real estate deal paid for with charitable funds.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was the equivalent of Pope Francis‘ chief of staff at the time of the deal and was later fired from another post, is on trial alongside senior London financiers and other employees of the Church.

They are accused of crimes, including embezzlement, fraud and corruption related to the Church’s purchase at a loss of luxury property in London’s upscale Chelsea district.

Becciu was at the time number two in the Secretariat of State, the most powerful department in the Vatican’s central administration.

The case against the 73-year-old, which charges embezzlement, abuse of power and witness tampering, also includes separate allegations of hundreds of thousands of euros in Church funds donated to his brother’s charity.

The trial is unprecedented as it took place before a Vatican tribunal made up of three lay magistrates rather than a religious tribunal, after Francis changed the law to deprive cardinals and bishops of their legal privileges.

Becciu, one of only two defendants who attended a preliminary hearing in July in the temporary courtroom of the Vatican Museums, insists he will prove his innocence “on every charge”.

The trial, which is expected to last for months, follows a two-year investigation into how the State Secretariat handled its vast portfolio of assets and, in particular, who knew what about the disastrous € 350m (now $ 407 million) London investment.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has been committed to cleaning up the Church’s finances.

The scandal is particularly embarrassing as funds used for risky ventures like the one in London came from Peter’s Pence, money donated by worshipers for the Pope’s charities.

– Risky investments –

Ahead of the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight, and double-dealing with outside consultants and insiders in whom the Secretary of State’s financial interests were vested.

The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it bought this London property in upscale Chelsea DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP / File

The main defendants are “actors of a rotten predatory and lucrative system, sometimes made possible thanks to a limited complicity, but very incisive, and an internal connivance”, they argued.

The current case dates back to 2013, when the Secretariat borrowed more than $ 200 million, mainly from Credit Suisse, to invest in a Luxembourg fund managed by an Italian-Swiss businessman, Raffaele Mincione.

Half was for stock market purchases and the rest for part of the Sloane Avenue building in London.

Prosecutors allege Mincione used the money to invest in high-risk businesses over which the Church had no control. By 2018, the Secretariat had already lost millions and attempted to withdraw from the deal.

Another London-based financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was asked to negotiate the purchase of the rest of the building and sever ties with Mincione. But he is accused of having joined forces with him instead.

Torzi allegedly inserted a clause in the sale agreement that would give him control of the building through voting rights. He is accused of having demanded 15 million euros to cede control.

Mincione and Torzi were aided, according to prosecutors, by Enrico Crasso, a former financial consultant to the Secretariat, and by employee Fabrizio Tirabassi, both prosecuted for fraud.

Also involved are two former senior officials of the Vatican’s financial watchdog, including its ex-president, Swiss lawyer René Bruelhart, who prosecutors say has not done enough to protect the interests of the Secretariat. .

strawberries-ar / aa / gd / spm

© 2021 AFP


Source link

Related posts:

  1. Churches prepare to mark second Easter in pandemic
  2. St Peter’s Square empty, other lockdowns mark second Easter amid pandemic
  3. Pope Francis celebrates Maundy Thursday mass with the cardinal he fired
  4. Vatican Cardinal to Catholics: This year’s Good Friday collection is vital for Christians in the Holy Land
Tagspope francis

Categories

  • Church Finance
  • Church Loans
  • Finance Debt
  • Religious Cash
  • Vatican Finances

Recent Posts

  • Pepperbox: Unusual church conversion made to look like Queen Victoria’s royal crown
  • The Frozen Bagel and the Synagogue
  • Jason Momoa apologizes after his Sistine Chapel photographs draw criticism
  • UPDATE 1-New York supermarket shooting probe to be weighed if warning signs missed
  • Danny DeVito Buys ‘Taxi’ Reprieve With ‘SNL’ Stunt

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019