Cardinal Becciu faces trial on embezzlement charge
Cardinal Becciu has said he will “prove to the world my absolute innocence”.
Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
The Vatican announced on 3 July that Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who served as the equivalent of a papal chief of staff for both Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, has been formally charged with a series of offences including embezzlement and abuse of office. Cecilia Marogna, an Italian woman who worked with the cardinal, is also among the defendants and has been charged with embezzlement.
This is the first time a Vatican cardinal has been put on trial for alleged financial crimes and it marks a potentially decisive moment in Francis’ reforms of Holy See finances. Church law means that the Pope will have had to personally authorise both the investigation and charging of Cardinal Becciu.
The Sardinian prelate, who served as sostituto at the Secretariat of State from 2011-18 and then as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was removed from office by Francis last September and also lost his right to vote in a future conclave.
The news of the impending trial, due to start on 27 July, comes after a two-year-long investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the €350 million purchase of 60 Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, south-west London.
Among those facing trial are two London-based Italian financiers involved in helping the Holy See’ Secretariat of State purchase the building. Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione will be put on trial for embezzlement, fraud and money laundering while Torzi, who was recently arrested in the UK and granted bail, has also been charged with extortion.
To add another layer to the drama, the Vatican announced that the two men who had previously been tasked with regulating Holy See finances are being charged. René Brülhart, a Swiss lawyer and former head of the Liechtenstein financial unit, was the president of the Vatican’s financial regulator but he is now facing trial for abuse of office. His one-time deputy, Tomasso di Ruzza, is facing accusations of embezzlement, abuse of office and violating official secrecy.
The others due to stand trial include Nicola Squillance, a lawyer based in Milan, who has been charged with fraud, embezzlement and money laundering and former Vatican officials who had been involved with the Chelsea property purchase. Mgr Mauro Carlino, ex-head of the Information and Documentation Office at the Holy See’s Secretariat of State and formerly Cardinal Becciu’s private secretary has been charged with extortion and abuse of office; Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, is facing an assortment of charges including embezzlement, corruption, money laundering, fraud and abuse of office and Fabrizio Tirabassi, a lay office, has been charged with corruption, extortion, embezzlement, fraud and abuse of office.
Four companies that are associated with individual defendants – two in Switzerland, one in the United States and one in Slovenia – have also been charged.
In a statement, the Vatican said their investigation had included working with authorities in the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Jersey, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Switzerland, and has brought “to light a vast network of relationships with financial market operators that have generated significant losses for Vatican finances” including “the resources destined for the Holy Father’s personal charitable works”.
The prosecutors, the statement explained, had worked according to the “indications and reforms of His Holiness Pope Francis” aimed at improving the “transparency and consolidation of Vatican finances” and which had run up against the “illegal and detrimental speculative activities.”
Francis’ reforms of Vatican finances has seen the creation of a new regulatory framework designed to flag up suspicious transactions, operate to international financial standards and work collaboratively with outside authorities. The Vatican prosecutors have run up against some difficulties in their investigation, with a British judge saying there had been a series of “non-disclosures” and “misrepresentations” in the Vatican’s case against Torzi.
A recent report by the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering watchdog, Moneyval, gave the Holy See a broadly positive rating but urged the Vatican to make it easier to charge senior clerics. A persistent criticism of Vatican financial reforms has been the lack of prosecutions of cardinals or high ranking prelates. In April, the Pope issued a new law ensuring that cardinals could be put on trial by the Vatican’s criminal courts staffed by lay judges. Previously they could only be judged by fellow cardinals.
The decision to put Cardinal Becciu and others on trial, therefore, represents another step in the battle towards financial transparency and accountability in the Vatican.
Cardinal Becciu said he will “prove to the world my absolute innocence”. Brülhart said: “I have always carried out my functions and duties with correctness, loyalty and in the exclusive interest of the Holy See and its organs.”
Nail the guilty to the Wall!
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