{"id":49874,"date":"2021-01-26T18:38:15","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T22:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=49874"},"modified":"2021-01-26T19:30:35","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T23:30:35","slug":"why-was-the-vatican-bank-just-imprisoned-for-embezzlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=49874","title":{"rendered":"Why was the head of the Vatican Bank just imprisoned for embezzlement!"},"content":{"rendered":"

VATICAN BANK HEAD JAILED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT<\/h1>\n

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Highest-ranking Holy See official punished for pocketing millions<\/h2>\n
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VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com<\/a>) –\u00a0A Vatican court has sentenced a former president of the Vatican bank to nearly nine years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering.<\/p>\n

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Angelo Caloia, disgraced former head of the Vatican Bank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Thursday, the court convicted Angelo Caloia, 81, head of the Institute for Works of Religion (Istituto per le Opere di Religione<\/a><\/em>\u00a0or IOR) \u2014 the official name of the Vatican Bank \u2014 of siphoning off up to 57 million euros.<\/p>\n

Caloia, who was awarded eight years and 11 months in jail, was sentenced along with his two accomplices \u2014 Gabriele Liuzzo, 97, and his son Lamberto Liuzzo, 55 \u2014\u00a0Italian lawyers who were the bank’s consultants.<\/p>\n

Gabriele Liuzzo was given the same sentence as Caloia, while his son was given a lighter sentence of five years and two months.<\/p>\n

The trio allegedly pocketed millions while managing the sale of\u00a029 of the bank’s properties \u2014 most of them in or near Rome\u00a0between 2002\u20132007 \u2014 and declaring a book value far less than the actual amount of the sale.<\/p>\n

The Vatican court also ordered the sequestering of 38 million euros in defendants’ bank accounts that were frozen and a payment of over 23 million euros as compensation to the Vatican bank and its real estate division, with the possibility of further damages.<\/p>\n

IOR intends to pursue by civil and criminal judicial proceedings any illicit activity carried out to its detriment, no matter where it occurred and who performed it.<\/i>Tweet<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Some proceeds were deposited in a Rome bank account that was not registered on the IOR’s balance sheet, according to documents seen by\u00a0Reuters<\/a>\u00a0at the start of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Commitment to Transparency?<\/h3>\n

German businessman and former IOR president Ernst von Freyberg began an investigation into the scam in 2013, soon after his predecessor Caloia stepped down from the office he had held from 1999\u20132009.<\/p>\n

According to an IOR\u00a0statement<\/a>, the “unlawful conduct” by Caloia and his accomplices “was carried out between 2001 and 2008” and “resulted in the disposal of a considerable part of the Institute’s real estate assets.”<\/p>\n

“Overall damages have been assessed in excess of 50 million euros,” the IOR said, closing a chapter in the cleanup of financial fraud committed during the pontificates of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n

“The decision of committal for trial was taken at the end of an investigation which\u00a0has been carried out since 2014 by the Vatican Promotor of Justice, following IOR’s complaint,” it noted.<\/p>\n

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