VATICAN CITY
The International News
VATICAN CITY: A senior cleric arrested on suspicion of corruption wrote to the pope on Thursday to accuse cardinals of covering up irregular financial activities carried out by his superiors in the Vatican.
“The documents in my possession are proof of my honesty and my fight against the misdeeds of my lay superiors, covered up by certain cardinals,” Nunzio Scarano said in a letter addressed to Pope Francis, cited by ANSA news agency.
The prelate, who was arrested on June 28 on suspicion of having acted as an intermediary for suspect transactions at the Vatican bank — otherwise known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) — proclaimed his innocence.
“I never laundered dirty money, I never stole, I tried to help someone who asked for help,” he wrote from behind bars in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison. Scarano, who worked for years as an accountant for APSA, an agency that manages Vatican assets, said he had documents which would prove his good faith and asked the pontiff permission to present them to him in person.
Financial police accuse Scarano of acting as a front for suspicious payments made through the Vatican bank and “interrupting the traceability of money.” The investigators allege that Scarano had used Vatican bank accounts to make transfers on behalf of his friends, including an attempt to move 20 million euros ($26 million) on behalf of a Neapolitan shipowning family.
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