Vatican, searches of the Spes cooperative brother Cardinal Becciu, Diocese and Caritas Ozieri

Following the request for judicial assistance from the Promoter of Justice of the Vatican, the prosecutor of the court of Rome Maria Teresa Gerace ordered searches in Sardinia at the legal, administrative and operational offices of Spes, a social cooperative legally represented by Antonino Becciu, brother of the cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. The latter is pending a Vatican criminal case “for several hypotheses of embezzlement, committed as a Vatican public official, through the transfer of Vatican public funds to the limited liability social cooperative Spes”. Searches were also arranged at the Diocese and the diocesan Caritas of Ozieri (Ss). In the opinion of the Public Prosecutor of Rome, “having read the information filed on 3.6.2021 by the Gicef of the Pef Unit of Rome of the Guardia di Finanza”, from which “the existence of economic relations between these subjects, in addition to a report of suspicious transactions relating to the aforementioned transfers of money “, it is necessary” to acquire – as required by letters rogatory – all the accounting and tax documentation relating to the economic relations that took place in the period of interest between the limited liability social cooperative Spes and the Diocese of Ozieri, being the examination of this documentation which is indispensable for demonstrating the existence of the hypothesis of diversion of public funds for which Becciu is currently under investigation “.