Swindled by hundreds of millions of euros, the Vatican demands accountability
The building at 60 Sloane Square, east London, owned by the Church, is at the heart of the process that opens in the Vatican.
Daniel Leal-Olivas AFP / Archivos
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The first trial for a massive fraud case that led the smallest state in the world to invest in a luxury building in London opens at the Vatican on Tuesday.
Millions have been lost.
No less than ten defendants must appear, including Cardinal Angelo Becciù, former number three of the Vatican.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in Rome,
Éric Sénanque
Exceptionally, the courtroom has been set up in a former annex of the Vatican Museums, as the court of the smallest state in the world did not have sufficient room to bring ten defendants to appear at the same time.
With nearly 30,000 pages of file, this unprecedented mega-trial could last two years.
A cardinal, Angelo Becciù
, a financier, a lawyer, a broker but also the former boss of the Vatican Bank, or an obscure consultant are at the helm and the file is heavy. The charges are numerous: fraud, embezzlement, corruption or even abuse of power. The magistrates will try to understand how the Holy See was able to invest and lose hundreds of millions of euros by wanting to buy a luxury building in London, on Sloane Square, what is more by diverting part of the funds of the "money of Saint Peter ', ordinarily used for the pope's charities around the world.
But behind the London building, nearly ten years of risky financial investments will be combed through.
A "clean hands" operation presented by many observers as a turning point in the financial transparency of the Vatican.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Vatican
Religion