Vatican: “it Is Not True We Are Obstructing the Investigations on the Ior”

Vatican Insider
February 9, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/ior-vigano-12465/

The headquarters of the IOR which is still at the centre of controversy

It's one denial after another. Only a few hours after the note written by the Vatican to disclaim some information published in the last few days, in particular an article by the Italian daily newspaper L’Unita entitled “Money laundering. Four priests under investigation. The Vatican keeps quiet.” Father Lombardi talked once more about the IOR (the ‘Pope’s bank’) which was the main topic of the talk show “Gli Intoccabili” (The Untouchables) aired yesterday 8 February on the La7 television channel. The spokesman of the Vatican defined the show as ‘partial’ and said that in his opinion the show does not give an ‘objective picture of the realities it describes.’

“The IOR,” stated the Vatican Press office, “is not a bank. It is a foundation founded on civil and canonical law with its own regulations. It does not have reserve funds and does not lend money like a bank”. “It’s also not an off-shore bank –“ continued the statement released by the Vatican. In truth the television show used that expression not to illustrate the true character and function of the IOR, but to give a sense of unlawfulness. The IOR is under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state, the Vatican, and it operates within laws and regulations that include the new Vatican law against money laundering.” This rule, Law CXXVII was introduced by the Vatican to comply with international standards.

The note dismisses the ‘ insinuations that Vatican regulations obstruct investigations or penal proceedings concerning the time before the law CXXVII became effective (1 April 2011)’ and with reference to the ‘exclusive memo’ presented during the TV show it explained that such ‘ document is devoid of any official value and represents only the opinion of the author’. Moreover”- it added-“ the possibility of investigations and penal proceedings for events prior to 1 April 2011 is not negated in the memo; there is no clear resistance from the IOR to collaborate in case of investigations or penal proceedings concerning events before 1 April 2011.”

As far as the collaboration between the IOR and AIF (Vatican Financial Information Authority) is concerned “ the Ior has cooperated to disclose information about transactions which happened before that date”. The statements made during the TV show are therefore ‘ not truthful’. “According to the Vatican regulation against money laundering the Vatican Judicial authority has the power to investigate also suspicious transactions that happened before 1 April 2011 and this is also true in the larger context of international cooperation between the Vatican and the judiciary systems of other countries including Italy.”

The declaration underlines moreover that “the IOR always had relations with banks beside the Italian ones and in spite of what has been said there has only been a small reduction in the financial relations between the Ior and Italian banks.” The IOR “just like the Italian financial bodies avails itself of the services of foreign banks (including Italian ones) when they are more efficient and cost less. All cash transactions are certified with Customs official documents. Usually all money transactions are duly traced and recorded.”

“For what concerns the laws regulating cash transactions it’s important to highlight “read the statement of the Holy See “ that the Ior keeps and kept under control also the so called step transactions up to a total of 15.000 Euro in ten consecutive days.” Moreover the up to date regulations establish that “ those subject to this same law (including the IOR) must carry out ‘adequate checks during occasional transactions that may come to or above the amount of 15.000 euro, independently of whether the transaction was only one large one or several smaller ones linked together”

“It is not true,” the statement concludes, “that the Vatican has not complied with the requests of the prosecutors in the Calvi case.”