Yet the bank statements never made it to Cardinal Pell or Milone — both of whom subsequently departed from their Vatican positions. By 2016, the value of APSA’s real estate holdings was estimated to be worth at least €800 million with a portfolio including property in London’s prestigious Mayfair, as well as in Paris and Switzerland. Die ZAR Real Estate Holding befindet sich weiter auf Wachstumskurs. To do this, Pell had to ask in writing for Pope Francis’ permission, which the Holy Father duly gave him with a simple signature. Neither Claudia Ciocca, a director in the Secretariat for the Economy charged with investigating these accounts, nor Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, the current APSA president, responded to the Register’s request for comment. One, Archbishop Nunzio Galantino said there was "only a need for a spending review.". Cardinal Pell had also firmly opposed a proposal to use the Vatican’s pension fund for half the purchase, and specifically asked to know how this investment figured into the pension fund’s strategy. VATICAN CITY — By October 2016, two years into his term as prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal George Pell had become aware of a Vatican dicastery handling large amounts of unregistered cash in offshore accounts. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Pope Francis defrocked him last year after he was found to have sexually abused adults and minors. “Highly irregular transactions were transiting through these banks.”.

The Vatican cut ties with Mincione in 2018, acquiring the whole of the London property and withdrawing its remaining investment with Athena. Privacy Policy | Sources say only few officials within APSA know the true extent of the Vatican’s foreign real estate portfolio, which is held largely “off the books” and handled confidentially. The suspended staffers include a top official at the Vatican’s financial watchdog, Tommaso Di Ruzza, and Monsignor Mauro Carlino, who was one of the highest officials at the Secretariat of State until Pope Francis made him a cardinal last year. An investigative author’s claim that the Vatican is close to "bankruptcy" has been denied by two leading Vatican bishops. The Church had long opposed such an idea, saying it could lead to wrongful prosecution. 60 SA Ltd. owns the building at 60 Sloane Avenue, which was acquired by the Secretariat of State from Mincione in stages for some $300 million. He said APSA had its own “autonomy” and that not all of its operations were known to the Secretariat of State. Contact It is still unclear what led to their suspensions and what, if any, wrongdoing is at issue. All rights reserved © 2020 The Real Deal is a registered Trademark of Korangy Publishing Inc. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Both banks refused to confirm or deny the existence of the accounts: a Julius Bär spokeswoman told the Register July 11 that as a “matter of policy” they “do not comment on alleged or existing client relationship.”. But nearly three years later the questions raised by Cardinal Pell about the management of Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), the dicastery which handles the Vatican’s real estate and financial assets, have seemingly gone unanswered. Cardinal Angelo Becciu has resigned as the head of the Vatican's saint-making body after he was reportedly linked indirectly to a London property deal that has been marred by allegations of corruption. More than 20 million euros of Vatican money from the same fund was also loaned to another Athena investment fund in which Time & Life was invested.

The search and seizure was authorized by Roman magistrate Maria Teresa Gerace, following a request by the Vatican Promoter of Justice Gian Piero Milano and his deputy Alessandro Diddi.

Try again later. Avarice, by Emiliano Fittipaldi—one of two books published this week on the basis of leaked confidential documents—reports that APSA has been involved in banking activities, making sizeable loans that were not recorded in Vatican budget figures. Vatican Finances, Raffaele Mincione. Vatican action against Mincione is the latest development in a nearly 18-month-long ongoing investigation into financial dealings by the Secretariat of State. Although Cardinal Pell’s former dicastery, now headed by former APSA deputy Msgr.

While many of the accounts are now thought to be closed, it remains unclear exactly how many there were or if any are still operating. The Vatican later accused Italian middlemen, who were part of the fund, of allegedly fleecing the Holy See of millions of euros in fees. At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith.

A senior Vatican official resigned on Thursday over alleged links to a multi-million-euro real estate scandal. Why it’s back, and why that matters, Pope Francis' homosexuality comments heavily edited in documentary, Vatican has no comment on civil unions. Round-up of top news and topics for each of the following cities: Editorially-curated headlines and news to know for the following areas: The numbers behind office leases, retail, sales and financing. The management of the UK portfolio is apparently carried out by APSA through a managing company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which does not identify the Vatican’s ownership in its records although … Real estate scandal rocks the Vatican. The Vatican has written to the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, to remind dioceses... Companies owned by Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione have filed lawsuits against the holding... Raffaele Mincione.

APSA—an office that has reportedly resisted the reforms imposed on the Vatican by the Secretariat of the Economy—comes under criticism in Fittipaldi’s book for allegedly mismanagement of funds and undocumented spending. Those same sources have told the Register that the events discussed in this article comprise just a “small sample” of the misconduct in play, but that Archbishop Galantino, and the new sostituto, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, are making some progress in addressing financial mismanagement and possible corruption in the Vatican and abroad.

The management of the UK portfolio is apparently carried out by APSA through a managing company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which does not identify the Vatican’s ownership in its records although its board of directors contains various members linked directly to APSA. Five Americans who were sexually molested by Catholic priests will sue the Vatican. Cardinal Pell responded by saying he would ask a Swiss law firm to first collect bank statements going back 10 years of one of these accounts, and to have the Vatican’s auditor general, Libero Milone, a former partner with Deloitte, a multinational financial auditing and consultancy firm, inspect them. At the time the cardinal was also being investigated for embezzlement allegations relating to his time as bishop of Savona (that investigation has not resulted in any criminal proceedings against the cardinal, who had reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops at the time his resignation as president of APSA was accepted last year by Pope Francis).

But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. The money that was thought to have been in these accounts, in the Lugano branches of two private banks, Banca della Svizzera Italiana and Julius Bär, could have been be as much as €7 billion, according to some estimates. On June 6, Vatican News described Mincione’s management of Vatican investments as “speculative” and a “conflict of interest.”. However, we understand from reliable sources that PwC was given alternative work to make up for the loss in fees. Officials at APSA often used the excuse that they were having difficulty obtaining the data when asked for information pertaining to these accounts.

1  While the Vatican may be small in … TRD Staff. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. The Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), the office that supervises the Vatican’s real-estate portfolio, held assets of nearly €1 billion in 2013, according to a new book exposing Vatican financial affairs. “They were delaying it, having ‘problems,’” said one of two informed sources in comments to the Register. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of … On June 17, Mincione’s company WRM Capinvest filed suit against the Jersey-registered holding company, 60 SA Ltd., according to legal news service Law360. (Promontory believed there were at least six accounts generating potentially problematic activity). Swiss media outlet NZZ am Sonntag has previously reported that tens of millions of euros had been frozen by Swiss authorities in several bank accounts, in cooperation with Vatican investigators looking into the London property deal. He is accused of extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and money laundering — charges that he denies. Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, who served as APSA’s president from July 2011 until June of 2018, reportedly asked Cardinal Pell to effectively rubber-stamp the transaction only at the eleventh hour, but the cardinal advised against it due to serious questions he felt were unanswered. Instead of owning property directly and being liable for any issues that occur, the holding company is liable. Vatican prosecutors, working with Italian authorities, have executed a search and seizure warrant against the Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, the man responsible for the controversial investment of hundreds of millions of euros on behalf of the Holy See Secretariat of State. They estimated that possibly as much as €100 million could be held in these accounts, primarily in the branches of two private banks located in Lugano, Switzerland. “It would be so simple to eliminate the corruption: change the people and obey the rules,” said the second Register source. Sources say the initiative to obtain the bank statements was most likely sabotaged after certain individuals became aware of the inquiry. It is unclear when that case was filed. In 2017, the first ever external audit of the Vatican by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) was abruptly cancelled by the Secretariat of State just months after it had started, and having been agreed upon by the Council of the Economy – a group of cardinals that oversees the Secretariat for the Economy. Di Ruzza said that “as a general rule,” if the Authority does find anomalies, it “spontaneously provides” and requests information from “its foreign counterparts” including Italian ones if “the interested subject is an Italian citizen or the transaction is connected with the Italian territory.” He declined to answer whether it made this verification when the Authority had oversight for APSA. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. After the identities of the staff who were suspended in the investigation were leaked to the press, the Vatican’s head of security, Domenico Giani, resigned. Italian media have reported that the frozen accounts include some belonging to Mincione, who has repeatedly denied any professional wrongdoing in his dealings with the Secretariat of State. Chinese investors were the single largest group of foreign investors in commercial real estate in the U.S. last year, with deal volumes reaching a record high of … Alberto Perlasca, whose home and office were raided earlier this year.