Vatican gets is €23 million back

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Italian prosecutors have ordered the release of €23 million (NZ$41 million) seized from a Vatican Bank account in a money-laundering probe.

The Vatican welcomed the move and said the funds were ordered returned after the Holy See issued new anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing laws to conform with EU and international norms, the Washington Post reports.

Italian financial police seized the money in September 2010 as a precaution and placed the bank’s top two officials under investigation, alleging the bank broke the law by trying to transfer money without identifying the sender or recipient.

The Vatican denied wrongdoing and said the investigation of the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works or IOR, resulted from a misunderstanding. The officials have not been charged.

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano quoted prosecutors Nello Rossi and Stefano Fava as saying that they had been able to verify “relevant” changes in the Holy See’s institutional norms that had responded to the problems requiring the seizure in the first place.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See appreciated the move, saying it “confirms the correctness with which the IOR seeks to operate and the Holy See’s serious commitment to comply fully with international standards to prevent illegality in the financial sphere.”

The bank was created to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for the pope’s religious or charitable works. It also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican’s thousands of employees. It is not open to the general public, with some 40,000-45,000 accountholders belonging to religious congregations, clergy, Vatican officials and lay people with Vatican connections.

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