A Vatican official facing money-laundering charges has appealed to Pope Francis, insisting he is innocent and claiming he was betrayed by his superiors.
Accused cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano wrote to the Pope from Rome’s Regina Caeli prison, where he is detained on charges of planning to bring €20 million in cash ($NZ33.5 million) into Italy illegally.
Scarano was arrested on that charge in June, after already having been suspended from his post at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See because he was being investigated on separate money-laundering charges.
“I never laundered dirty money, I never stole,” he insisted in the letter to the Pope dated July 20. “I tried to help someone who asked for help.”
Scarano, a senior accountant who headed the office that oversees Vatican property and investments, declared: “I have documentation that proves my honesty and my battles against the abuse of my secular superiors, covered up by some senior cardinals.”
He also claimed these unnamed cardinals had “skeletons in the closets” and were “well blackmailed”.
Scarano said that he had brought the financial misconduct to the attention of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was secretary to Pope John Paul II and is now Archbishop of Krakow.
He also said he had contacted Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals and former Secretary of State. Neither prelate helped him, he said.
Police allege that Scarano and an associate set up a private jet to fly the cash for three Salerno-based shipowner brothers, the D’Amicos, whose family was friendly with Scarano.
Magistrates who asked a judge to order his arrest said Scarano offered his friends “a series of services … in the area of financial transactions, in particular when there was a need or a request for them to remain secret”.
They said the prelate carried out “a series of illegal activities by unscrupulously using his network of contacts in different areas, including businessmen, clergy who looked the other way, secret service agents and Vatican Nank personnel”.
Sources:
Image: Sydney Morning Herald
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