Italian media reported last week claims that Becciu transferred several hundred thousand euros from Vatican accounts to an account in Australia during Pell’s trial. The two men are known to have clashed over Vatican finances when Becciu was the number two-ranking official in the Secretariat of State and Pell was prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.
Becciu, until recently the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, also denied several other specific allegations, insisting that he was not involved in any illegal activities.
“His Eminence Cardinal Becciu reiterates the absolute falseness of any allegations that circulated in the press, and confirms his lack of involvement in any illicit matters whatsoever,” the statement said.
“He awaits with serenity the results of every assessment, in any forum, which will finally confirm his fidelity to the Holy Father and the Church.”
The Vatican announced Becciu’s resignation as prefect and from the “related rights of the Cardinalate” in a terse statement on the evening of Sept. 24.
At a press conference the morning after, Becciu said that he had resigned following an audience with Pope Francis, who told him that he no longer trusted him because he had seen reports from Vatican magistrates implicating the Italian cardinal in embezzlement. Becciu denied that he had committed any crimes and said that he was ready to explain himself if called on by the Vatican’s judicial authorities.
The new statement maintained that neither the cardinal nor his brothers held stocks or bonds, or stakes in hedge funds or foreign bank accounts.
It said that “no money transfer has ever been made by any means from the Secretariat of State into the personal and private belongings of his family.”
The statement added that the Holy See had never invested money in the Angel’s company, owned by one of the cardinal’s brothers, “linked to either the production or the selling of the beer.”
It also denied that the cardinal or his brothers had invested any income from their own family businesses into hedge funds.