VATICAN CITY
The Local
Vatican police on Saturday apprehended an American and a Dutch man who were trying to deposit billions of euros and US dollars in fake bonds in the Vatican bank.
The men were stopped by the police when they approached one of the guarded gates at the Vatican and asked to be let through to the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) as the bank is formally known, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP.
The bonds were discovered in a briefcase they were carrying and the men were handed over to Italy’s financial police, who found false passports and other fake documents in their hotel rooms.
The haul came a day after Italian prosecutors said two former top executives at the Vatican bank will go on trial for money laundering in a case that led to the seizure of €23 million ($32 million).
IOR press officer Max Hohenberg said the American and Dutch man “are neither clients of the bank, nor were they expected”.
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