Accusations of embezzling and laundering €50 million have resulted in a former Vatican bank president and his lawyer being ordered to stand trial. The Vatican says the bank’s former president, Angelo Caloia, is the highest-ranking Holy See financial official to be indicted on such charges. Seventy-eight year-old Coloia, along with his lawyer, 94 year-old Gabriele Liuzzo, Read more
A Vatican court found two former top managers of the Vatican bank liable for mismanagement and ordered an injunction for them to pay damages. Read more
The Vatican bank deputy CEO was removed from his position and escorted from the Vatican on Monday last week. The news of Giulio Mattietti’s removal from the bank (correctly called the Institute of Religious Works) has been confirmed by the Holy See press office. It is not clear why Mattietti was removed, although Italian media Read more
The Vatican bank has started legal proceedings in Malta against those it holds responsible for the loss of millions of euros in an investment fund. Maltese judge, Mr Justice Wenzu Mintoff, will preside over the case. His role will include deciding the bank’s total losses. The Vatican statement says the losses are “significant.” It also Read more
The Vatican bank’s annual report shows a profit of €36 million (about NZ$55,630 million) for its last financial year. The profits, which are up €20 million from the €16.1 million in the 2015 year, are “being distributed in aid of the Holy See’s mission”. More properly called the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Read more
Two former Vatican bankers have been convicted of minor money-laundering violations. Their violations involved communications involving three small transfers. They were sentenced to four months, 10 days each. Read more
Vatican Bank board members have been called out by Greenpeace because of their links to the fossil fuel sector. According to a Greenpeace Energydesk investigation, Vatican Bank board member Sir Michael Hintze is the chief executive of the private hedge fund CQS Cayman, registered on the Cayman islands. The fund holds stocks worth $8.3 million Read more
Two Vatican bank board members have resigned amid what one source says is frustration at the slow pace of reform. Two experienced bankers, Italian Carlo Salvatori and German Clemens Boersig, resigned from the board of the Institute for the Works of Religion. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said this followed a “divergence of opinion over Read more
It is now impossible to launder money at the Vatican bank, its chairman has said. Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, chairman of the Institute for the Works of Religion (the Vatican bank), said the institution had tightened its rules. The latest annual report of the IOR showed that 4935 accounts were closed between June 2013 and December Read more
The Vatican may consider, but is not committed to, divesting its holdings in fossil fuels, an official has indicated. That is despite Pope Francis’s call in his encyclical Laudato Si’ for bold action to fight climate change and global warming, The Guardian reported. At a press conference on July 1, Flaminia Giovanelli from the Pontifical Read more