Torzi broker shutdown. The accusation: extort 15 million
2020-06-06T17:15:28.725Z
While the Anglo-Molise broker Gianluigi Torzi remains in the cell in the Vatican, after being arrested yesterday evening at the end of eight hours of interrogation by the prosecutors of the Oltretevere Gian Piero Milano and Alessandro Diddi, in the framework of the investigation into the purchase and sale of a prestigious property in London with funds from the Secretariat of State, the preliminary work on the papers and minutes continues. And above all, the outlines of a financial scandal of considerable proportions are emerging, over 300 million euros, brought to light for the first time by the internal 'antibodies' established in the Vatican economy by the reforms of the last decade. The complex investigation, which in Torzi charges an alleged extortion of 15 million (with other crimes such as embezzlement, aggravated fraud and self-laundering) and which contemplates six other suspects - Monsignors Mauro Carlino and Alberto Perlasca, three lay officials of the Secretariat of State plus l former director of the AIF, Tommaso Di Ruzza -, reconstructs articulated transactions and reaches the current turning point after the Swiss authorities have responded favorably to the request for judicial assistance from the Holy See, sending a first nucleus of documents in late April for a diplomatic note and also blocking bank funds for tens of millions of euros. The broker's lawyers, lawyers Ambra Giovene and Marco Franco, however, believe that the arrest warrant "is the result of a big misunderstanding determined by interested statements that may have misled a correct interpretation of the story by the investigators", adding that Torzi he "never acted against the interests of the Holy See" and said he was "sure" that his position "will soon be clarified with acknowledgment of his extraneousness to the disputed charges". It is now the same Vatican media that detail the first findings of the investigation, recalling how it starts from two complaints presented by the IOR and the general auditor (July and August 2019) and how the story is divided into two phases: in 2014 the subscription by the Secretariat of State, for 200 million and 500 thousand dollars, of the "Athena Capital Global Opportunities Fund" of Raffaele Mincione, owner of the London building on Sloane Avenue; then between the end of 2018 and the first half of 2019, when the Secretariat of State tries to obtain the availability of the property by liquidating the shares of the Mincione fund to resolve the investment whose movable part also entailed losses, but ends up suffering - with contestation of suspects - the alleged extortion actions and the fraud of Torzi, called into question as an intermediary. One of the suspects of the Secretariat of State, Fabrizio Tirabassi, head of the administrative office, at that time was looking for someone able to open a negotiation with Mincione and through the lawyer Manuele Intendente arrived in Torzi. The agreement was found in a few hours, also thanks to Tirabassi's immediate availability to recognize Mincione as many as 40 million as an adjustment. This phase is still under investigation, but the disbursement raises to 350 million the price paid by the Secretariat of State - including initial investment in the fund, mortgage and adjustment in Mincione - to have the Sloane Avenue building available (which a company Mincione had bought in 2012 for 129 million pounds). But the story does not end here. In fact, to take over the property, instead of purchasing the "60 SaLimited", the Jersey-based company that held it through a chain of additional companies, the Secretariat of State, represented by Fabrizio Tirabassi and Enrico Crasso (this last delegate to operate on the accounts of the Secretariat of State with his company "Sogenel Capital Holding") decided - for reasons yet to be clarified - to triangulate the purchase through the "Gutt Sa" headed by Torzi. The investigations showed that Torzi, starting from December 2018, began to make unjustified and disproportionate economic requests to transfer the shares of "Gutt Sa" or in any case of the chain of companies that held the London property, so as to return to the State Secretariat the availability of the building. The broker arrested at the Vatican, after an exhausting negotiation conducted by several mediators on behalf of the Secretariat of State, agreed between April and May 2019 to sell the shares of the holding company, against the payment of 15 million euros. Money paid, asserted, without any economic and legal justification. The Vatican judiciary also explains that Torzi, threatening not to cede the chain of holding companies to the Holy See, "instilled fear of serious damage to the assets of the Secretariat of State and forced it to a long negotiation by various emissaries". Negotiation ended with the payment of another 15 million euros.
- Vatican: London still, Gianluigi Torzi arrested
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06 June 2020While the Anglo-Molise broker Gianluigi Torzi remains in the cell in the Vatican, after being arrested yesterday evening after eight hours of interrogation by the prosecutors of the Oltretevere Gian Piero Milano and Alessandro Diddi, in the framework of the investigation into the sale of a prestigious property in London with funds from the Secretariat of State, the preliminary investigation on the papers and minutes continues. And above all, the outlines of a financial scandal of considerable proportions are emerging, over 300 million euros, brought to light for the first time by the internal 'antibodies' established in the Vatican economy by the reforms of the last decade. The complex investigation, which in Torzi charges an alleged extortion of 15 million (with other crimes such as embezzlement, aggravated fraud and self-laundering) and which contemplates six other suspects - Monsignors Mauro Carlino and Alberto Perlasca, three lay officials of the Secretariat of State plus l former director of the AIF, Tommaso Di Ruzza -, reconstructs articulated transactions and reaches the current turning point after the Swiss authorities have responded favorably to the request for judicial assistance from the Holy See, sending a first nucleus of documents in late April for a diplomatic note and also blocking bank funds for tens of millions of euros. The broker's lawyers, lawyers Ambra Giovene and Marco Franco, however, believe that the arrest warrant "is the result of a big misunderstanding determined by interested statements that may have misled a correct interpretation of the story by the investigators", adding that Torzi he "never acted against the interests of the Holy See" and said he was "sure" that his position "will soon be clarified with acknowledgment of his extraneousness to the disputed charges". It is now the same Vatican media that detail the first findings of the investigation, recalling how it starts from two complaints presented by the IOR and the general auditor (July and August 2019) and how the story is divided into two phases: in 2014 the subscription by the Secretariat of State, for 200 million and 500 thousand dollars, of the "Athena Capital Global Opportunities Fund" of Raffaele Mincione, owner of the London building on Sloane Avenue; then between the end of 2018 and the first half of 2019, when the Secretariat of State tries to obtain the availability of the property by liquidating the shares of the Mincione fund to resolve the investment whose movable part also entailed losses, but ends up suffering - with contestation of suspects - the alleged extortion actions and the fraud of Torzi, called into question as an intermediary. One of the suspects of the Secretariat of State, Fabrizio Tirabassi, head of the administrative office, at that time was looking for someone able to open a negotiation with Mincione and through the lawyer Manuele Intendente arrived in Torzi. The agreement was found in a few hours, also thanks to Tirabassi's immediate availability to recognize Mincione as many as 40 million as an adjustment. This phase is still under investigation, but the disbursement raises to 350 million the price paid by the Secretariat of State - including initial investment in the fund, mortgage and adjustment in Mincione - to have the Sloane Avenue building available (which a company Mincione had bought in 2012 for 129 million pounds). But the story does not end here. In fact, to take over the property, instead of purchasing the "60 SaLimited", the Jersey-based company that held it through a chain of additional companies, the Secretariat of State, represented by Fabrizio Tirabassi and Enrico Crasso (this last delegate to operate on the accounts of the Secretariat of State with his company "Sogenel Capital Holding") decided - for reasons yet to be clarified - to triangulate the purchase through the "Gutt Sa" headed by Torzi. The investigations showed that Torzi, starting from December 2018, began to make unjustified and disproportionate economic requests to transfer the shares of "Gutt Sa" or in any case of the chain of companies that held the London property, so as to return to the State Secretariat the availability of the building. The broker arrested at the Vatican, after an exhausting negotiation conducted by several mediators on behalf of the Secretariat of State, agreed between April and May 2019 to sell the shares of the holding company, against the payment of 15 million euros. Money paid, asserted, without any economic and legal justification. The Vatican judiciary also explains that Torzi, threatening not to cede the chain of holding companies to the Holy See, "instilled fear of serious damage to the assets of the Secretariat of State and forced it to a long negotiation by various emissaries". Negotiation ended with the payment of another 15 million euros.
