The Vatican dismisses several financial control officials
Mauro Carlino, Tommaso Di Ruzza, among others, are being investigated by the Secretary of State for alleged irregular millionaire operations
The Vatican has suspended five senior officials of the financial control office, including the head of the Information and Documentation Department, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, and the director of the Financial Information Authority, or IDA, Tommaso Di Ruzza, as published by the magazine L’Espresso of the group of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
The judicial authorities of the Vatican have opened an investigation in the Secretary of State for allegedly irregular million-dollar operations in which these five senior officials of the Holy See would be involved.
The investigation would be linked to seizures of documentation and electronic material made this Tuesday at the offices of the Secretary of State of the Holy See, which is directed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The Secretary of State, the most powerful department in the Vatican, is the nerve center of its bureaucracy and diplomacy and the administrative heart of the world Catholic Church. The IDA, headed by Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart, is the financial controller with authority over all departments of the Vatican.
The Vatican reported the raids Tuesday and said they were related to “financial operations carried out over time.” According to the annual report of the Financial Information Authority (FIA), suspicious operations in Vatican finances were markedly reduced from 150 in 2017 to 56 last year, continuing a trend that officials said showed reforms underway.
Last year, the Vatican City State Court sentenced Italian businessman Angelo Proietti to two years and six months in jail for money laundering through a bank account opened at the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR ), better known as the ‘Vatican Bank’. It was the first time that in the Vatican jurisdiction he applied a conviction for this type of financial crime.
K. Tovar
Source: La Nación
