Public Prosecutors Question Gotti Tedesci over Possible Money-laundering Activities in Vatican Bank

Vatican Insider
June 7, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/news/detail/articolo/ior-15794/

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi

Today, Rome’s chief prosecutor, Giuseppe Pignatone, interrogated former Vatican bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, in Milan. This is after Naples prosecutors ordered a search of Gotti Tedeschi’s study, at his home in Piacenza (northern Italy) yesterday, unearthing some material that was considered to be of interest. The interrogation carried out by Rome’s public prosecution is apparently linked to suspicions of money laundering activities in Vatican bank accounts.

The Vatican bank’s former president was heard as a witness being investigated in a legal procedure that is linked to this one and was therefore assisted by a defending counsel. Gotti Tedeschi’s name is on the Roman public prosecution’s list of people under investigation, on charges of violation of money laundering laws through suspicious money transfers worth 23 million Euro. The money was seized in September 2010 and then returned to the Vatican bank (IOR). The public prosecution in Rome believes these operations are punishable in accordance with current money laundering laws. The Vatican bank’s former director general, Paolo Cipriani is still being investigated for this.

The seizure of the 23 million Euro was revoked by Rome’s public prosecution in June 2011 after it accepted a petition filed by the defence and in light of “the considerable changes made on a legal and institutional level.”