A first chapter of the investigation into the management of the funds of the Secretariat of State - which today led to the indictment of 10 people and 4 companies - concerns the investment in the Athena Capital Global Opportunities Fund of Raffaele Mincione, an operation that took place between June 2013 and February 2014. The Secretariat of the State is indebted to Credit Suisse for two hundred million dollars to invest them in the Mincione fund (100 in the movable part, 100 in the real estate part, linked to the London building at Sloane Avenue 60). The highly speculative investment leads to serious losses for the Holy See, Vatican News reconstructs. As of 30 September 2018, the shares had lost over 18 million euros compared to the value of the initial investment, but the overall loss is estimated to be much more substantial.Mincione uses Vatican money to carry out imprudent operations and to attempt takeover of banking institutions in crisis. Faced with the disastrous results, the Secretariat of State tries to exit the investment and take possession of the property. The operation provides that the Secretariat of State will disburse 40 million pounds to Mincione in exchange for its shares. It was decided to entrust himself to a company of another financier, Gianluigi Torzi, who with a ploy manages to keep control for himself and to circumvent the Holy See thanks to internal complicity. From the documentation produced by the Vatican magistrates it appears that Mincione and Torzi actually agreed to carry out the operation with the Secretariat of State.finance man who for decades had been managing the investments of the Secretariat of State) and Fabrizio Tirabassi (employee as a clerk of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State) two key figures and believe that they have obtained commissions from Mincione and payments in cash from Torzi for letting them enter the Vatican. Thanks to internal complicity, Torzi succeeds in having a Share Purchase Agreement signed, which effectively removes control of the London property from the Secretariat of State. He does this by creating 1,000 shares of the company GUTT SA and assigning voting rights to only these shares held by him, while the other 30,000 shares, owned by the Secretariat of State, did not have voting rights.The Secretariat of State thus finds itself with another financier in the Vatican who has been left with all decision-making powers. The Vatican magistrates - explains Vatican News - believe that "neither Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, subscriber of the Share Purchase Agreement, nor his Superiors, Substitute Edgar Peña Parra and above all Cardinal Pietro Parolin, had actually been informed and in any case were fully aware of the legal effects that the different categories of shares would have resulted ". The same power of attorney of the Substitute, which would have been necessary to sign the agreement, is obtained post-factum and without the superiors being messiah knowledge of the "trick" that allows Torzi to control everything. To gain control of the building and Torzi's exit,15 million euros are extorted from the Secretariat of State, thanks to the internal complicity of the suspects for whom the indictment was requested, paid to the financier with irregular causes. According to the Vatican magistrates, AIF, the Financial Supervisory Authority, would have "neglected the anomalies of the London operation - of which it was immediately set aside - especially considering the wealth of information that, due to the intelligence activities , it had acquired ". According to the documents produced by the prosecution, the AIF played "a decisive role in completing the process of liquidating the claims of Gianluigi Torzi". Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former Substitute of the Secretariat of State, does not immediately enter the investigation.He is involved because the magistrates accuse him of "interference" and believe that he is behind the offers to purchase the building that suddenly emerged at the end of May 2020 a few days before Torzi's interrogation. According to the testimonies Becciu would also have tried to have Perlasca retracted. Payments made by the Secretariat of State to Cecilia Marogna on Becciu's recommendation also entered the investigation. The women's society received payments made by the Secretariat of State for € 575,000 between 20 December 2018 and 11 July 2019. The inquiries through letters rogatory made it possible to ascertain that these figures "were almost entirely used to make purchases" which are not compatible and therefore not justifiable with the corporate purpose of the company itself.Finally, the magistrates accuse Becciu of having financed and had the cooperative of his brother Antonino financed. This is 600,000 euros from the funds of the Italian Bishops' Conference and 225,000 euros from the funds of the Secretariat of State. The donations would have been "widely used for purposes other than the charitable ones they were intended for".
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03 July 2021 A first chapter of the investigation into the management of the funds of the Secretariat of State - which today led to the indictment of 10 people and 4 companies - concerns the investment in the Athena Capital Global Opportunities Fund of Raffaele Mincione, an operation which took place between June 2013 and February 2014.
The Secretariat of the State is indebted to Credit Suisse for two hundred million dollars to invest them in the Mincione fund (100 in the movable part, 100 in the real estate part, linked to the London building at Sloane Avenue 60). The highly speculative investment leads to serious losses for the Holy See, Vatican News reconstructs. As of 30 September 2018, the shares had lost over 18 million euros compared to the value of the initial investment, but the overall loss is estimated to be much more substantial. Mincione uses Vatican money to carry out imprudent operations and to attempt takeover of banking institutions in crisis. Faced with the disastrous results, the Secretariat of State tries to exit the investment and take possession of the property.
The operation provides that the Secretariat of State will disburse 40 million pounds to Mincione in exchange for its shares. It was decided to entrust himself to a company of another financier, Gianluigi Torzi, who with a ploy manages to keep control for himself and to circumvent the Holy See thanks to internal complicity.
From the documentation produced by the Vatican magistrates it appears that Mincione and Torzi actually agreed to carry out the operation with the Secretariat of State. to the Secretariat of State) and Fabrizio Tirabassi (employee as minute clerk of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State) two key figures and believe that they obtained commissions from Mincione and cash payments from Torzi for having them enter the Vatican.
Thanks to internal complicity, Torzi succeeds in having a Share Purchase Agreement signed, which effectively removes control of the London property from the Secretariat of State. He does this by creating 1,000 shares of the company GUTT SA and assigning voting rights to only these shares held by him, while the other 30,000 shares, owned by the Secretariat of State, did not have voting rights. The Secretariat of State thus finds itself with another financier in the Vatican who has been left with all decision-making powers. The Vatican magistrates - explains Vatican News - believe that "neither Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, subscriber of the Share Purchase Agreement, nor his Superiors, Substitute Edgar Peña Parra and above all Cardinal Pietro Parolin,had actually been informed and in any case were fully aware of the legal effects that the different categories of shares would have resulted ".
The same power of attorney of the Substitute, which would have been necessary to sign the agreement, is obtained post-factum and without the superiors being messiah knowledge of the "trick" that allows Torzi to control everything. To obtain control of the building and Torzi's exit from the scene, the Secretariat of State, thanks to the internal complicity of the suspects for whom the indictment was requested, is extorted 15 million euros, paid to the financier with irregular causes.
According to the Vatican magistrates, AIF, the Financial Supervisory Authority, would have "neglected the anomalies of the London operation - of which it was immediately set aside - especially considering the wealth of information that, due to the intelligence activities , it had acquired ".
According to the documents produced by the prosecution, the AIF played "a decisive role in completing the process of liquidating the claims of Gianluigi Torzi".
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former Substitute of the Secretariat of State, does not immediately enter the investigation. He is involved because the magistrates accuse him of "interference" and believe that he is behind the offers to purchase the building that suddenly emerged at the end of May 2020 a few days before Torzi's interrogation. According to the testimonies Becciu would also have tried to have Perlasca retracted. Payments made by the Secretariat of State to Cecilia Marogna on Becciu's recommendation also entered the investigation.
The women's society received payments made by the Secretariat of State for € 575,000 between 20 December 2018 and 11 July 2019. Investigations through letters rogatory made it possible to ascertain that these figures "were used, almost entirely, to make purchases" which are not compatible and therefore not justifiable with the corporate purpose of the company itself ". Finally, the magistrates accuse Becciu of having financed and had the cooperative of his brother Antonino financed. This is 600,000 euros from the funds of the Italian Bishops' Conference and 225,000 euros from the funds of the Secretariat of State. The donations would have been "widely used for purposes other than the charitable ones they were intended for" .
