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<div class="">June 28, 2013</div>
<h1>Cleric Arrested in $26 Million Plot, Leaving New Blot on Vatican Bank</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/d/rachel_donadio/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by RACHEL DONADIO"><span>RACHEL DONADIO</span></a></span> and <span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/elisabetta_povoledo/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by ELISABETTA POVOLEDO"><span>ELISABETTA POVOLEDO</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
ROME — A Vatican official. A private plane. And 20 million euros in cash. </p>
<p>
Claiming to have foiled a caper worthy of Hollywood, or at least
Cinecittà, the Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate and two
others on corruption charges, saying that the priest plotted last summer
to help wealthy friends sneak the money, the equivalent of about $26
million, into Italy while evading financial controls. </p>
<p>
Along with the prelate, a financial broker and a military police agent
deployed to the Italian Secret Service were arrested after an
investigation that developed out of a broader three-year inquiry into
the Vatican Bank. The case is the latest black mark on the bank, which
under Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to shake its
image as a secretive tax and money laundering haven and bring itself
into compliance with European norms so it can use the euro. </p>
<p>
Rome prosecutors say the three men hired a private plane last July with
the intention of bringing the cash into Italy from Locarno, Switzerland.
The money was to be carried by the Secret Service agent, Giovanni Maria
Zito, who would not be required to declare it at the border. But the
scheme fell through, the prosecutors said, as the three began bickering
and, eventually, lost their nerve. Cellphones used by the three in
arranging the money transfer were later burned, prosecutors said.
</p>
<p>
The European Union and the United States have served notice in recent
years that they will no longer tolerate the wall of secrecy in tax
havens like Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. As a result,
major account holders have been growing increasingly nervous. </p>
<p>
Nello Rossi, the Rome prosecutor who led the investigation, said that
discussions picked up on wiretaps seemed to indicate that the 20 million
euros in Switzerland was tied to the D’Amico family, Salerno shipping
magnates. </p>
<p>
Even before his arrest on Friday, the prelate, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, was
known to the authorities. An employee of Deutsche Bank before entering
the priesthood, and until recently an accountant in a top Vatican
financial office that oversees the Catholic Church’s real estate
holdings, Monsignor Scarano was under investigation by magistrates in
Salerno on accusations that he illegally moved $730,000 in cash from his
account in the Vatican Bank to Italian banks, his lawyer said. </p>
<p>
Monsignor Scarano’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, said his client would contest
the charges. “I am certain he will want to speak to prosecutors to
clarify his position,” Mr. Sica said. He added that Monsignor Scarano
had had no previous dealings with the police or with judicial
investigations. </p>
<p>
In a statement on Friday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico
Lombardi, said that Monsignor Scarano had been suspended from his
position at the Vatican “more than a month ago, ever since his superiors
were informed that he was under investigation.” </p>
<p>
He added that the Holy See “has not yet received any requests from the
competent Italian authorities, but confirms its willingness for full
collaboration,” and that the Vatican’s internal financial watchdog was
following the matter and would take, “if necessary, the appropriate
measures in its competency.” </p>
<p>
Only priests, members of religious orders, Catholic institutions,
employees of the State of Vatican City and diplomats accredited to the
Holy See are allowed to keep accounts at the Vatican Bank, known as the
Institute for Works of Religion. But rumors have long swirled that
accounts were being used as fronts for other interests, including
organized crime and Italian politicians. </p>
<p>
In the Salerno case, prosecutors accuse Monsignor Scarano of having
illegally moved 560,000 euros, equivalent to $730,000, from his account
in the Vatican Bank. Mr. Sica said that the monsignor had told
prosecutors that the money came from a “generous donor” and was intended
to finance a hospice for terminally ill patients in Salerno. </p>
<p>
According to Mr. Sica, the prelate needed the sum to pay off a mortgage
on a personal apartment. Because of “controversial reasons of a family
nature,” Monsignor Scarano had been advised to ask 56 friends to accept
10,000 euros apiece, in exchange for money transfers in the same amount,
Mr. Sica said. All 56 are also being investigated by Salerno
prosecutors. </p>
<p>
The authorities, who have accused Monsignor Scarano of laundering the
money, said he had another reason. “He split the money up so it wouldn’t
be as noticeable,” said Franco Roberti, the chief prosecutor of
Salerno. </p>
<p>
The investigation came about after Monsignor Scarano reported a break-in
at his apartment late last year, during which the thieves made off with
precious paintings and silver artifacts. That led to questions about
where the art had come from, Mr. Sica said, and then to the discovery of
the moving of the 560,000 euros. </p>
<p>
The arrests Friday were the most dramatic events to emerge from the Rome
prosecutors’ investigation into the Vatican Bank since 2010, when
prosecutors seized $30 million from two external accounts used by the
Vatican Bank and placed its then-president and director general under
investigation. The money was later ordered unfrozen after the Vatican
created an internal financial watchdog in 2010, but it has not yet been
released. </p>
<p>
The collaboration between the Vatican and investigators in the case was
virtually unprecedented, Giacomo Galeazzi, who follows the Vatican for
the Turin newspaper La Stampa, said in a telephone interview. In the
past, the Vatican had always resisted when asked to assist in judicial
matters, he said, citing a famous kidnapping case that involved the
daughter of a Vatican employee; the case of Roberto Calvi, a banker with
close ties to the Vatican who was found dead in 1982; and the
investigation into the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
</p>
<p>
“This time the collaboration is real, and the Vatican has announced that
it would do its own internal investigation,” Mr. Galeazzi said. “That
marks a real change of climate.” That change can be attributed in part
to Pope Francis, but also to the influence of the American Catholic
Church. The American cardinals “were very upfront about the need to
clean up the Vatican Bank,” he said. “This pope could not deny the
prosecutors any assistance.” </p><br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
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