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The first auditor general of the Vatican and his deputy are suing the Secretariat of State for $9.25 million in damages.
Angelo Cardinal Becciu was present Tuesday, July 27, the first day of a major Vatican finance trial to defend himself of charges of embezzlement and abuse of office. He is one of 10 defendants in the Vatican’s largest trial for financial crimes in modern times.
The Vatican announced Saturday that Cardinal Angelo Becciu will be tried on charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu again denied having interfered in any way with the trial of Cardinal George Pell, after Italian media reported an allegation that Becciu might have wired money to Australia as a bribe during Pell’s trial.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu insisted Wednesday on the “absolute falseness” of claims of financial misconduct against him.
Cardinal George Pell is set to return to Rome on Tuesday, his first time back in the Vatican since 2017, when he took a leave of absence from his role as prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy to travel to Australia.
Following his resignation Thursday, September 24, new reports reveal details of how Cardinal Angelo Becciu managed Vatican financial affairs, developing a story CNA first broke last year.
Although investigators are looking into a controversial Vatican investment in a luxury London property development, whether the deal was corrupt is still an open question, Pope Francis said Tuesday.
The Vatican Secretary of State told CNA this week that he is responsible for arranging a controversial loan for the purchase of a bankrupt Italian hospital, and that he arranged with Cardinal Donald Wuerl a grant from the U.S.-based Papal Foundation to cover the loan when it could not be repaid.
McCarrick made the intervention in December 2017, after objections were raised to the Vatican’s request of $25 million from the Papal Foundation, for a bankrupt Italian hospital, the Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI).
Cardinal Angelo Becciu and Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi have been key players in a complicated series of financial transactions to finance the Vatican Secretariat of State’s 2015 acquisition of the hospital.