Vatican Bank’s Ex-Chief Indicted Over $60 Million in Embezzlement Losses
Supported by By Reuters A former president of the Vatican bank has been ordered to stand trial on charges of embezzlement
and money laundering, the Vatican has said, making him the highest-ranking Holy See financial official to be indicted on charges tying him to losses of more than $61 million from real estate sales.
lawful conduct" by the three occurred from 2001 to 2008 during "the disposal of a considerable part of the institute’s real estate assets." It estimated damages at more than 50 million euros, or more than $61 million at current exchange rates,
and said that the bank would seek compensation. that un
In that order, Mr. Milano said the men had regularly underrepresented the proceeds from real estate sales in the Vatican bank’s official books.
Thousands of accounts were closed, and last year Italy put the Vatican on its "white list" of states with cooperative financial institutions, ending years of mistrust
and providing an endorsement of efforts by Pope Francis to clean up Vatican finances.
They were suspected of embezzling money while managing the sale of 29 buildings sold by the Vatican
bank, mainly to Italian buyers, from 2001 to 2008, according to a copy of the freezing order.
Moneyval, the monitoring body of the Council of Europe, has said in several evaluations
that while the Vatican has made great strides in cleaning up the I.O.R.