VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
By Morgan Winsor
Bank accounts of two former Vatican Bank managers and an attorney representing them were frozen by a Vatican prosecutor, who suspects the three men were embezzling. The three are accused of stealing money while selling Vatican-owned real estate in the 2000s, Reuters exclusively reported Saturday. Prosecutor Gian Piero Milano said the money in the men’s bank accounts, about €16.0 million ($19.7 million), “stems from embezzlement they were engaged in,” according to an Oct. 27 sequester order obtained by the news agency.
Milano accused the bank’s ex-president, Angelo Caloia, and former director general, Lelio Scaletti, of consistently lying about the sale prices of Vatican-owned real estate on the bank’s official books and then pocketing the difference between the recorded amount and the true sale price. Their legal consultant, Gabriele Liuzzo, allegedly received some of the money as well. A whopping €57 million were apparently swiped between 2001 and 2008, when the bank sold 29 buildings, according to the order obtained by Reuters.
Liuzzo, 91, told Reuters his accounts had been frozen, but said Milano’s allegations were “rubbish” and that the money from the sales had all gone to the bank. Caloia, 75, and Scaletti, 88, did not respond to the news agency’s requests for comment, according to its report.
Officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, the Vatican Bank released a statement saying it had pressed charges against the three men in an “ongoing judicial enquiry.” Caloia, Scaletti and Liuzzo have not yet been charged, Reuters reported.
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