UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody
Posted on July 16, 2017 by Betty Clermont
That was the assessment of “observers” according to Vatican reporter, Andrea Gagliarducci, in his July 3 column. Milone, appointed by Pope Francis in 2015 as the Vatican’s financial auditor general, had resigned by “mutual agreement” on June 20. No reason was given. Milone made no statement.
In May 2016, two lay members of the Board of Superintendence of the Vatican Bank resigned “in light of legitimate reflections and opinions concerning [the bank’s] management” the Vatican said. Carlo Salvatori, President of Lazard Italia and Allianz Italia, and Clemens Borsig, former Chairman of the Board of Management at Deutsche Bank, remain silent.
René Brülhart, an official of the Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority since 2012, seems to have one foot out the door. In a March interview, Brülhart spoke about his “new role at a Swiss mortgage lender,” his “return to Swiss banking,” and that, regardless of his years in the Vatican, “I still see myself as an adviser to the financial services industry.”
Do Milone, Salvatori, Borsig and Brülhart know something we don’t?
Although consistently reported by the U.S. media as “reforming” or “cleaning up” the Vatican, Pope Francis never hired any forensic accountants or former law enforcement agents with expertise in financial malfeasance to assist him. Meanwhile, even a cursory examination of Pope Francis’ appointments would lead to questioning his intentions.
On July 1, 2013, the Vatican announced that Promontory Financial Group employees were appointed as the Vatican Bank’s (officially the Institute of Religious Works or IOR) director, chief risk officer and senior advisers. (See: “Promontory’s activities focus heavily on the adept circumvention of regulations,” according to an article on how Promontory “attempted to suppress evidence that [U.S.] borrowers had been harmed by the false and deceptive practices of the mortgages lenders.”)
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.