Cardinal is convicted of embezzlement in Vatican financial trial
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 51⁄2 years in prison, in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city-state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.
Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges, and nine other defendants received a combination of guilty verdicts and acquittals among the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a 21⁄2-year trial.
Becciu’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said he would appeal.
The trial focused on the Vatican secretariat of state’s investment of 350 million euros — about $382 million — in developing a former Harrod’s warehouse in London into luxury apartments. Prosecutors alleged that Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions, then extorted $16.4 million from the Vatican to cede control of the building.
Becciu was also accused of embezzlement in two tangents of the London deal and faced up to seven years in prison.
He was convicted of embezzlement stemming from the original investment of $218 million in a fund that bought into the property, as well as for his donation of $136,000 of Vatican money to a charity run by his brother in Sardinia. He was also convicted of using Vatican money to pay an intelligence analyst who in turn was convicted of using the money for herself.
The trial raised questions about the rule of law in
the city-state and Pope Francis’ power as absolute monarch, given that he wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial authority and, the defense said, had exercised it in ways that jeopardized a fair trial.
Prosecutors had sought prison terms of three to 13 years and damages of more than $430 million to try to recover the estimated $218 million they say the Holy See lost in the bad deals.
The tribunal acquitted some suspects of many of the charges but ordered the confiscation of $181 million from them and payment of civil damages to Vatican offices of $218 million.
One defendant, Becciu’s former secretary Msgr. Mauro Carlino, was acquitted entirely.
The trial was initially seen as a sign of Francis’ financial reforms and willingness to crack down on misdeeds in the Vatican.
But it became something of a reputational boomerang for the Holy See, with revelations of vendettas, espionage and even ransom payments to Islamic militants.
Much of the case rested on the passage of the property from one London broker to another in late 2018. Prosecutors allege that the second broker, Gianluigi Torzi, hoodwinked the Vatican by maneuvering to secure full control of the building that he relinquished only when the Vatican paid him $16.4 million.
For Vatican prosecutors, that amounted to extortion. For the defense — and a British judge who rejected Vatican requests to seize Torzi’s assets — it was a negotiated exit from a legally binding contract.
In the end, the tribunal convicted Torzi of several charges, including extortion, and sentenced him to six years in prison.
It wasn’t clear where the suspects would serve their time.
The Vatican has a jail, but Torzi’s whereabouts weren’t immediately known.
The original London investigation spawned two others that involved the star defendant, Becciu, once one of Francis’ top advisors who has been considered a papal contender.
Prosecutors accused Becciu of embezzlement for sending $136,000 in Vatican money to a Sardinian charity run by his brother.
Becciu argued that the local bishop requested the money to build a bakery to employ at-risk youths and that the money remained in the diocesan coffers.
The tribunal acknowledged the charitable ends of the donation but convicted him of embezzlement, given his brother’s role.
Becciu was also accused of paying a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna, for intelligence services. Prosecutors traced some $627,000 in wire transfers from the Vatican to a Slovenian front company owned by Marogna and said she used the money to buy luxury goods and fund vacations.
Becciu said he thought the money was going to a British security firm to negotiate the release of Gloria Narvaez, a Colombian nun who was taken hostage by Islamic militants in 2017 in Mali.
He said Francis authorized up to 1 million euros — about $1.1 million — to liberate the nun, an astonishing claim that the Vatican was willing to make a ransom payment to Al Qaeda-linked militants.
The tribunal found Becciu and Marogna guilty and sentenced Marogna to three years and nine months in prison.