A bishop arrested in the investigation into the Vatican bank

A bishop, a member of the Italian secret services and a financial intermediary were arrested Friday, June 28 as part of an investigation by the Italian Institute of Justice on the Works of Religion (IOR), the Vatican bank, announced the media.

According to the website of Corriere della Sera, the prelate was arrested Nunzio Scarano, Bishop of Salerno, in southern Italy. Sky TV TG-24 indicates that the three men are suspected of fraud and corruption.

MONEY

The arrest of the three men was made as part of a broad investigation launched by the Italian court in September 2010, which was the president of the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and the Director General of the day, Paolo Cipriani, for violating the law against money laundering. Tens of millions of euros had been blocked in this investigation which led, among other things, the dismissal of the head of the IOR.

Over the years, the scandals have tarnished the reputation of the institute of criminal elements took advantage of the anonymity or nominees in order to launder their funds. The most important was in 1982 the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, a bank scandal mingled CIA and Masonic lodge. The Enimont case (1993) jars of wine to Italian political parties also splashed the IOR and, more recently, the Court of Rome has detected cases of money laundering mafia through the mysteries of the bank .

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The Swiss René Brülhart, advisor to the Financial Reporting Authority, which oversees the IOR, said six suspicious transactions were reported in 2012.

THE POPE AT WORK

In recent years, the Vatican has repeatedly reinforced control mechanisms of the IOR. In the same line, Pope Francis announced Wednesday, June 26 the creation of a special commission to investigate the Vatican Bank is responding to him, to ensure that its activities are "in harmony" with the mission the Catholic Church.

The commission will have all the powers to obtain all the necessary data and information and to replace existing rules, which require managers to maintain secrecy in the exercise of their functions. The bank will not be under guardianship and will continue during the investigation of the commission, to be managed by its current directors and be supervised by the usual regulators.

The new pope wants to break the image of privileged institution to the Church, and the new president of the IOR, the German Ernst von Freyberg, began to examine the accounts and activities of the bank. The latter, which does not make any loan transaction holds assets worth $ 7.1 billion it manages. She exudes 86.6 million profits, which are used to finance operations of the Church throughout the world.