Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a Vatican court last week.
Six other defendants received prison sentences while two more were fined, after 86 sessions of the Vatican’s “trial of the century”. One defendant was acquitted.
Becciu, the former sostituto at the Secretariat of State – the curial chief of staff – was found guilty of three counts of embezzlement by purchasing shares in 2013 and 2014 in Athena Capital Commodities, a hedge fund run by Raffaele Mincione. The court said Becciu’s use of funds “violated the provisions on the administration of ecclesiastical property”, specifically canon 1284 of the canonical code, as the investment was dangerously speculative.
A complex series of deals involving these funds, including the purchase of 60 Sloane Avenue in London, eventually cost the Vatican tens of millions of euros. The court convicted Mincione of self-laundering, sentencing him to five and a half years in prison.
Fabrizio Tirabassi, a former Vatican employee, and Enrico Crasso, a financial consultant, were convicted of embezzlement, and on charges of self-laundering and extortion. They received sentences of seven and a half years and seven years respectively.
Gianluigi Torzi, who brokered parts of the Sloane Avenue deal, was convicted of fraud and extor- tion and given a six-year sentence, while lawyer Nicola Squillace received a sentence of one year and 10 months with five years suspended for his role. Tommaso Di Ruzza and Rene´ Bruelhart, who headed the Vatican’s Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, were con- victed of failing to report a suspicious transaction and fined €1,750 (£1,500). Becciu and the security consultant Cecilia Marogna were convicted in relation to a separate incident involving a payment of ransom money for a kidnapped nun. Marogna was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.
Becciu was convicted on further counts of corruption, while the other defendants were cleared of other charges. The court tribunal ordered the confiscation of the equivalent of more than €166 mil- lion from the defendants and payment of more than €200 mil- lion of civil damages to Vatican offices. Several defendants, including Becciu, declared their intention to appeal the verdict.
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