The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering inspectorate, Moneyval, has ended more than a decade of special measures and inspections over Vatican institutions, upgrading the Holy See to the watchdog’s ordinary process of assessments and evaluation to “regular” status. The move comes after Moneyval offered a broadly positive assessment of financial security progress made at the Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Money laundering’
Vatican police arrest Italian in investigation of London real estate deal
Monday, June 8th, 2020Vatican police on Friday arrested Gianluigi Torzi, an Italian middleman who was part of a controversial deal in which the Vatican used Church money to purchase a luxury building in London as an investment. Torzi, who was arrested after questioning by Vatican magistrates, was accused of extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money laundering, the Vatican Read more
$1.3B laundered through NZ each year
Thursday, November 28th, 2019New Zealand is awash with dirty money but how much is anyone’s guess. A new report by the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) estimates domestic criminal activity is generating $1.35 billion for money laundering each year. Most of it comes from drug offending ($750m), fraud ($500m) and other offences such as burglary ($100m). Read more
Money laundering: Worth more than $1 billion in NZ every year
Monday, March 19th, 2018Overseas criminals seeking to mask their illicit funds are laundering an estimated $1.35 billion at least through New Zealand each year, according to the boss of the New Zealand Police’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). Continue reading
Top Vatican bank staff embezzled €50 million
Monday, March 5th, 2018
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
Vatican prosecutor: money laundering investigation needed
Monday, December 11th, 2017
The Vatican prosecutor is being urged to investigate all cases of money laundering and terrorist financing. Moneyval, which is the Council of Europe’s monitoring body, also says the prosecutor should be more “proactive” in other financial crimes. These include corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office. Furthermore, Moneyval says the prosecutor should “actively consider appealing sentences Read more
Vatican froze two million euros in 2016
Monday, February 20th, 2017
The Vatican froze two million euros last year. Its aim was to prevent the Vatican state being used as a cover for corruption and money laundering. The Vatican has enacted a number of provisions to clean up its finances and make them more transparent in recent years. This has been especially the case since Pope Read more
Vatican bank turns a €23m corner
Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
The return of €23m to the Vatican Bank marks a turning point in being accepted again by Italy’s banks. After blocking the funds in a 2010 money laundering investigation, an Italian bank returned the money last week. The Vatican Bank, whose official name is “Institute for Works of Religion” (IOR), said in a statement, the return of Read more
Fall of the Vice-Pope
Friday, June 20th, 2014
A photograph taken in Argentina in 2007 shows two cardinals, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Tarcisio Bertone, sitting side by side, although their chairs are on two different levels. At the time, Bertone was the Vatican’s Secretary of State, having traveled to a village in northern Patagonia “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI” to Read more
Vatican City cracks down on suspicious transactions
Friday, October 11th, 2013
The Vatican City State has adopted a new law cracking down on financial transactions that could enable money-laundering and imposing a new level of transparency and supervision. The Holy See Press Office said the new norm, Law XVIII, “strengthens the current internal system for the prevention and countering of money laundering and the financing of Read more