A former adviser to the Pope who was once tipped for the Catholic Church’s top position himself has been jailed after being convicted of monetary crimes.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, probably the most senior Catholic Church official ever to face trial before a Vatican criminal court, was found guilty of fraud and embezzlement. He was sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison.
Fabio Viglione, the Italian prelate’s lawyer, insisted that his client was innocent and that an appeal would launched.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu attends a consistory inside St. Peter’s Basilica, on the Vatican, on 27 Aug, 2022
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Becciu, who lives within the Vatican, was expected to stay free in the meanwhile.
In all, 10 defendants were accused of crimes including fraud, abuse of office and money laundering as a part of the scandal. All denied wrongdoing.
It took court president Giuseppe Pignatone 25 minutes to read all of the verdicts and sentences.
Becciu, like many of the other defendants, was convicted on some counts and acquitted of others. Only one, Becciu’s former secretary, father Mauro Carlino, was acquitted of all charges.
The trial, which exposed infighting and intrigue in the very best echelons of the Vatican, lasted for 86 sessions over two-and-a-half years.
It revolved mostly around the acquisition of a constructing in London by the secretariat of state, the Vatican’s key administrative and diplomatic department.
Becciu, then an archbishop, held the number two position there in 2013 when it began investing in a fund managed by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, securing about 45 per cent of the constructing at 60 Sloane Avenue, in an upmarket district of town.
Mincione was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering and given the identical sentence as Becciu.
The court said Becciu had been irresponsible and “highly speculative” to speculate greater than $200 million with Mincione’s fund between 2013-2014, noting this was a couple of third of the holdings of the Secretariat of State on the time.
In 2018, with Becciu in one other Vatican job, the secretariat of state felt it was being deceived by Mincione and turned to a different financier, Gianluigi Torzi, for assist in squeezing Mincione out and buying the remaining of the constructing.
Torzi also fleeced the Vatican, in line with prosecutors. He was found guilty of fraud and extortion and sentenced to 6 years.
The Vatican sold the constructing last 12 months, taking an estimated lack of about 140 million euros ($150 million).
Becciu, who was fired by Pope Francis from his next job in 2020, but stays a cardinal, was also found guilty of embezzlement for funnelling money and contracts to corporations or charities controlled by his brothers on their native island of Sardinia.
Another accusation involved his hiring of Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security analyst, also from Sardinia, as a part of a secret project to assist win freedom for a nun who had been kidnapped in Mali.
Marogna, 46, received 575,000 euros from the Secretariat of State in 2018-2019. The money was sent to an organization she had arrange in Slovenia and she or he received some in money, prosecutors told the court.
Italian police said Marogna had spent much of the cash on luxury clothing and health spas. Both she and Becciu were found guilty of aggravated fraud related to the transfer of cash and Marogna was ordered to return the cash to the Vatican.
Enrico Crasso, a banker who managed funds for the Secretariat of State, was convicted of cash laundering and sentenced to seven years. Fabrizio Tirabassi, who worked within the Secretariat, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years.
The court ordered Becciu, Mincione, Tirabassi and Crasso to repay a complete of greater than 100 million euros to the Vatican.
Nicola Squillace, a lawyer who worked with each Crasso and Tirabassi, was given a suspended sentence of a 12 months and 10 months.
Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer and former president of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Unit, and its director, Italian Tommaso Di Ruzza, were convicted of administrative omission and ordered to pay small fines.
