Ex-Vatican banker guilty of embezzling

ROME — The Vatican’s criminal tribunal on Thursday convicted the former head of the Vatican bank and his lawyer of embezzling millions of dollars in proceeds from the sales of Holy See-owned real estate, and sentenced each to nearly nine years in prison.

The court also awarded the bank, known as the Institute of Religious Works, about $27 million in restitution from money seized from the two’s Swiss and Vatican bank accounts that were frozen during the investigation.

Prosecutors had accused former bank chief Angelo Caloia, 81, and his 97-year-old lawyer, Gabriele Liuzzo, of embezzlement, misappropriation of funds and money-laundering between 2001 and 2008, when the bank sold off a sizable chunk of its real estate assets.

The scam allegedly involved the selling of 29 properties in Rome and elsewhere at undervalue prices to offshore companies that then resold them at market rates, with Caloia and Liuzzo pocketing the difference.

Court-appointed experts estimated the bank lost about $41 million in potential revenue from the undervaluing of the sales, and determined the two siphoned off about $23 million for themselves, the Vatican press office said.

Caloia’s lawyers, Domenico Pulitano and Rosa Palavera, said they would appeal and noted that their client had been acquitted of the most serious accusations concerning “the majority of the properties.”