Embezzling suspect faces Vatican case

VATICAN CITY — Vatican prosecutors have accused a woman of embezzling some $590,000 in Vatican money for intelligence consulting she never really performed, working out of a Slovenian front company and using at least half the money instead to buy merchandise from Prada, Chanel and other fancy brands, Italian news reports said.

Cecilia Marogna, a 39-yearold political consultant was arrested Tuesday in Milan on an international warrant issued by the Vatican, Italy’s financial police confirmed Wednesday.

According to Vatican documents published in Italian newspapers and shown on investigative television shows this week, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the onetime No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, wired the funds to Marogna’s Logsic firm, purportedly for humanitarian operations in Africa and Asia.

Marogna has told Italian media outlets that she was a political analyst and intelligence expert who reached out to Becciu in 2015 with concerns about security for Vatican embassies in hot spots and was quickly brought into the cardinal’s inner circle.

Marogna told Corriere della Sera that over four years, Becciu wired her about $590,000 as compensation, travel reimbursements and consultancy fees after she pitched herself as having “a network of relationships in Africa and the Middle East to protect nunciatures and missions from environmental and terrorist risks.”

Becciu, who was sacked by Pope Francis last month after admitting he sent about $117,000 in Vatican money to a charity headed by his brother, has insisted that his dealings with Marogna were legitimate.

Marogna’s arrest was believed to be part of a sprawling corruption investigation opened last year by Vatican prosecutors into the Holy See’s more than $410 million investment into a London real estate venture, much of it funded by donations from the faithful.

It’s not immediately clear what charges Marogna could face if she was merely on the receiving end of consulting fees Becciu approved.