Italian police seize $30M from Vatican in probe

Hey! It's the 80's all over again!
[exclamation marks! please don't start singing Wham!]

It seems like only yesterday we were reading "Italy: The Great Vatican Bank Mystery"

A tale of two deaths, twelve investigations and missing millions
Two suicides, both of which could conceivably be murder. As much as $1.2 billion in unsecured loans. The failure of Italy's huge Banco Ambrosiano, which has left more than 200 international financial institutions holding the bag for millions in loans. A scandal that has threatened the stability of the entire international banking system and has begun to bring about subtle changes in the way the world's major banks do business. A secret plot to undermine the government of Italy and to change the shape of politics in several Latin American countries....

-Time Magazine
September 13, 1982

From the AP:

Italian authorities seized euro23 million ($30.18 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money laundering probe.
The Vatican said it was "perplexed and surprised" by the investigation.

Italian financial police seized the money as a precaution and prosecutors placed the Vatican bank's director general and its chairman under investigation for alleged mistakes linked to violations of Italy's anti-laundering laws, news reports said.

The is probe not the first time the bank — formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion — has faced trouble. In the 1980s, it was involved in a major scandal that resulted in a banker, dubbed "God's Banker" because of his close ties to the Vatican, being found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London....MORE

Alrighty then. As for me, I gotta go go.

Posted by climateer