Former Vatican Bank Managers to Go to Trial in Italy

Anchorage Daily News
March 28, 2014

http://www.adn.com/2014/03/28/3398196/former-vatican-bank-managers-to.html

Two former top managers of the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, the Vatican's scandal-tainted bank, will go to trial over money laundering charges, Italian prosecutors said Friday.

Former IOR Director General Paolo Cipriani and deputy Massimo Tulli quit their positions in July, days after the arrest of a high-ranking Vatican prelate who allegedly used the bank to launder money on behalf of wealthy family friends.

Tulli and Cipriani are accused of having broken anti-money laundering law in connection to the transfer of $31.5 million from an account IOR held at a Rome branch of Credito Artigiano, part of Milan-based Credito Valtellinese.

The date for the start of their trial has yet to be set.

Italian authorities seized the funds in 2010, holding on to them for about one year.

They became suspicious following attempts to move $27.5 million to an account held at a Frankfurt, Germany, branch of the bank JP Morgan, and the other $4 million to an account of the Italian bank Banca del Fucino.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was IOR president at the time, was also placed under investigation, but he was cleared from all allegations of wrongdoing last month. Gotti Tedeschi was ousted from the Vatican bank in 2012, in a decision that was never fully explained.

Under Pope Francis, efforts to clean up Vatican finances have been stepped up. In January he overhauled the membership of the panel of cardinals that oversees the IOR, while last month he created a new economy secretariat headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell.