Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (124484)	9/21/2010 2:50:58 PM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 132070

Wayne surprise surprise Vatican Bank Tied to Money Laundering Scandal By RACHEL DONADIO ROME —Italian monetary authorities officials said Tuesday they had impounded $30 million from the Vatican bank and placed its top two officers under investigation in connection with suspected money laundering. The announcement amounted to another potential storm confronting the the papacy of Benedict XVI, who is still struggling with the effects of a priestly abuse scandal. In a statement, the Vatican expressed “perplexity and surprise” that the bank’s chairman, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and its general director, Paolo Cipirani, had been placed under investigation. It added that it had the “greatest trust” in the two men and had been working for greater transparency in its finances. The investigation is the first into the Vatican bank since the early 1980’s, when it was famously implicated in the collapse of an Italian bank whose director, nicknamed “God’s banker,” was mysteriously found dead, hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. Italian authorities have historically shied away from investigating the Vatican’s finances — as much out of deference to the church as owing to the complex relationship between Italy and the Holy See, a sovereign state. “The era of omertà is over,” said Gianluigi Nuzzi, the author of the 2009 bestseller “Vatican LLC,” using the Italian term for the code of silence. The investigation was undertaken because of a new directive by the Bank of Italy. Aimed at preventing financing of terrorist groups and money laundering, it now requires all foreign banks operating in Italy — including the Vatican Bank — to provide detailed information about the origins of the money it transfers. Officials said that Mr. Gotti Tedeschi and Mr. Cipriano were under investigation for having failed adequately to explain the origins of funds transferred from one account held by the Vatican Bank to two others it holds. They said the seizure was preventive and neither man had been formally charged or placed under arrest. In the coming months, a judge is expected to rule on whether to proceed with the investigation. The investigation could potentially blight the record of Mr. Gotti Tedeschi, a well-respected banker and the head of operations in Italy for Spain’s Banco Santander who was brought in by Pope Benedict XVI last year to help clean up the murky finances of the Vatican bank, a private bank formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, or IOR, which manages funds aimed at charitable activities. The new investigation appeared more mundane but no less explosive. Officials said they had opened the investigation on Monday after the Bank of Italy, adhering to anti-money-laundering directives, alerted them to two suspicious transfers on Sept. 6 from an account held by the Vatican bank at a Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa., a bank based in Northern Italy. One transfer of $26 million was directed to an account held by the Vatican bank at a Frankfurt branch of the U.S. bank J.P. Morgan, and another of $4 million was directed at an account it held at a Rome branch of the Banca di Fucino. Under a new directive, Italian banks are required to provide the Bank of Italy with information on the provenance of the funds they receive via transfer. Under Italian law, magistrates are required to open an investigation if there is a suspicion that a crime may have been committed. Magistrates in Rome opened the investigation because the accounts in question were in bank branches in Rome. News reports last year said that the same magistrates had opened up a broader investigation last year into bank accounts held by Vatican officials and charitable entities in Rome banks. In both cases, investigators bypassed the sovereignty of the Holy See by looking into Italian accounts that had received funds from the Vatican Bank. In a statement, the Holy See said it expressed “perplexity and surprise at the initiative taken by the Rome court, considering that all the necessary data were already made available to the competent office at the Bank of Italy and similar operations are ongoing with other Italian credit institutions.” It added that the Vatican Bank was working to join the “white list” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the highest ranking on its transparency charts. In the early 1980’s, the Vatican bank was involved in a scandal at Italy’s Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed after the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans to companies in Latin America. The Vatican bank denied wrongdoing but paid $250 million to Banco Ambrosiano’s creditors. The new investigation appeared to show a more aggressive stance by the Bank of Italy, a player in the complex power dynamics of contemporary Italy. “It has a central role, whereas before it had a subaltern role,” Mr. Nuzzi said. A spokeswoman for the Bank of Italy said it had no comment. More in Europe (2 of 48 articles) Gay Rights Icon in Russia Tells of Abduction Read More » Close