Vatican scandal, Cardinal Becciu to trial with 9 others

From the former Substitute of the Secretariat of State, the ‘resigned’ Cardinal Angelo Becciu, to the financiers Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, the Vatican sends ten lay and ecclesiastics to trial on 27 July next for the inquiries started from the scandal of the Sloane Avenue building in London. Four companies were also indicted, one attributable to the ‘Lady of the Cardinal’, the entrepreneur Cecilia Marogna from Cagliari, and three to the former Vatican finance manager Enrico Crasso. “With today’s decree – reads a note from the Holy See – the President of the Vatican Tribunal has ordered the summons for the judgment of the accused in the context of the financial investments of the Secretariat of State in London. The trial will begin at hearing of 27 July next The request for summons to trial was presented in recent days by the Office of the Promoter of Justice, in the persons of the Promoter Gian Piero Milano, the Deputy Alessandro Diddi and the Applicant Gianluca Perone and concerns ecclesiastical personnel and lay person of the Secretariat of State and senior figures of the then Financial Intelligence Authority, as well as external personalities, active in the world of international finance “. The note explains that the investigations “also revealed elements against Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who are being prosecuted, as required by law for crimes of embezzlement and abuse of office also in competition, as well as subornation”. The summons to trial then concerns the former president of AIF, René Brülhart, to whom the prosecution challenges the crime of abuse of office; Mons. Mauro Carlino, former secretary first of Becciu and then of the new Substitute Edgar Pena Parra, to whom the prosecution challenges the crimes of extortion and abuse of office; the former Vatican finance manager Enrico Crasso, against whom the prosecution disputes the crimes of embezzlement, corruption, extortion, money laundering and self-laundering, fraud, abuse of office, false public deed material committed by the private individual and false private deed; the former director of the AIF, Tommaso Di Ruzza, to whom the prosecution challenges the crimes of embezzlement, abuse of office and violation of office secrecy; the entrepreneur from Cagliari known as the ‘Lady of Becciu’ Cecilia Marogna, against whom the prosecution challenges the crime of embezzlement; the rider Raffaele Mincione, to whom the prosecution disputes the crimes of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, embezzlement and self-laundering; the lawyer Nicola Squillace, against whom the prosecution disputes the crimes of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and self-laundering; the former lay official of the Secretariat of State Fabrizio Tirabassi, against whom the prosecution challenges the crimes of corruption, extortion, embezzlement, fraud and abuse of office; the Molise banker Gianluigi Torzi, against whom the prosecution disputes the crimes of extortion, embezzlement, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and self-laundering. The four companies on trial are HP Finance LLC, attributable to Enrico Crasso, to whom the prosecution disputes the crime of fraud; the Logsic Humanitarne Dejavnosti, DOO, referable to Cecilia Marogna, to whom the prosecution disputes the crime of embezzlement; the Prestige Family Office SA, referable to Enrico Crasso, to whom the prosecution disputes the crime of fraud; Sogenel Capital Investment, attributable to Enrico Crasso, to whom the prosecution disputes the crime of fraud. Some of the crimes mentioned above – it is specified in the Vatican note – are also contested “in competition”. “The investigations, launched in July 2019 following a complaint by the Institute for Works of Religion and the Office of the Auditor General, saw full synergy between the Promoter’s Office and the Judicial Police section of the Gendarmerie Corps – reads note from the Holy See – The preliminary activities were also carried out in close and fruitful collaboration with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome and the Economic-Financial Police Unit – Gicef of the Guardia di Finanza of Rome. Cooperation with the Public Prosecutors of Milan, Bari is also appreciated. , Trento, Cagliari and Sassari and their respective sections of the judicial police “. “The preliminary activities, also carried out with rogatorial commissions in numerous other foreign countries (United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Jersey, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland), have made it possible to bring to light a vast network of relationships with financial market operators that have generated substantial losses for the Vatican finances, having also drawn on the resources destined for the personal charitable works of the Holy Father. The judicial initiative is directly linked to the indications and reforms of His Holiness Pope Francis, in the work of transparency and financial recovery Vatican; a work that, according to the accusatory hypothesis, was opposed by illegal and detrimental speculative activities on the reputational level in the terms indicated in the request for indictment “, concludes the note.