Vatican Names Swiss Lawyer to Lead Anti-Laundering Efforts

By Agence France-Presse
The Msn
November 8, 2012

news.malaysia.msn.com/business/vatican-names-swiss-lawyer-to-lead-anti-laundering-efforts-1

The Vatican on Wednesday appointed a Swiss lawyer who helped Liechtenstein shed its shady reputation, to head up the Vatican's financial authority in a bid to meet global rules against money laundering.

The Vatican's Financial Information Authority (FIA), which was set up in 2010, will still be headed up by Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora but the 40-year-old Rene Bruelhart will now be the body's executive director.

Bruelhart was hired as a consultant by the Vatican in September.

The Vatican said the appointment "has strengthened its internal organization. This represents one more step in the effort to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism," a Vatican spokesman said.

A report by the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering body Moneyval in July had criticised the lack of independence of the FIA but hailed progress made by the Vatican in implementing legislation against laundering.

The report said the Vatican had scored unsatisfactory ratings in seven out of 16 "key recommendations" and satisfactory ratings in nine.

Bruelhart, who was head of Liechtenstein's financial intelligence unit (FIU) for eight years, has also honed his skills as leader of the Egmont Group, an informal alliance of some 130 countries that share financial information.

His main task will be to tackle the Vatican's murky reputation following a series of scandals, including allegations that bank accounts belonging to clergy in the tiny state were being used by the mafia for money laundering.

The Vatican bank has a troubled history including in the 1970s and 1980s with the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, where the Holy See was the main shareholder, which was accused of laundering money for the Sicilian mafia.

The chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi -- dubbed "God's Banker" in the press -- was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in a suspected murder by mobsters for which no-one has ever been convicted.

The Vatican hopes its efforts will align the world's smallest state with new global standards and get it on to the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's white list of financially virtuous countries.