Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the most senior Catholic Church official to ever stand trial before a Vatican criminal court, has been convicted of embezzlement and fraud and was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail.
While talking to reporters in the courtroom, Italian prelate’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said his client was innocent. Becciu, who lives in the Vatican, is expected to be free for the time being.
The trial exposed infighting and intrigue in the topmost echelons of the Vatican and lasted for 86 sessions over two-and-a-half years.
The trial revolved around the messy purchase of a London building by the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s major administrative and diplomatic department.
Becciu was an archbishop then who held the number two position there in 2013 when it started investing in a fund managed by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, securing around 45% of the building at 60 Sloane Avenue.
Mincione was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering. He was given the same sentence as Becciu.
According to the court, Becciu had been irresponsible and “highly speculative” to invest over $200 million with Mincione’s fund between 2013-2014 and noted that this was about a third of the holdings of the Secretariat of State at the time.
Torzi also swindled the Vatican, according to prosecutors. He was found guilty of fraud and extortion and was sentenced to six years.
The Vatican sold the building in 2022, taking an estimated loss of about 140 million euros.
Becciu was sacked by Pope Francis from his next job in 2020 over alleged nepotism, but remains a cardinal. He was also found guilty of embezzlement for channeling money and contracts to companies or charities controlled by his brothers in Sardinia.
Another accusation is his hiring of Cecilia Marogna, a security analyst, also from Sardinia, as part of a secret project to help get freedom for a nun who had been kidnapped in Mali.
Prosecutors told the court that Marogna, 46, got 575,000 euros from the Secretariat of State between 2018 and 2019. The money was wired to a company she had set up in Slovenia and she received some in cash.
Italian police said Marogna spent much of the money on luxury clothing and health spas. Both she and Becciu were found guilty of aggravated fraud related to the transfer of money and Marogna was ordered to send the money back to the Vatican.
Enrico Crasso, a banker that managed funds for the Secretariat of State, was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to seven years in prison. Fabrizio Tirabassi, who worked in the Secretariat, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
The court ordered Becciu, Mincione, Tirabassi and Crasso to repay a total of more than 100 million euros to the Vatican. Nicola Squillace, a lawyer who worked with both Crasso and Tirabassi, was handed a suspended sentence of a year and 10 months
