Vatican Bank faces Money Laundering probe

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The Vatican Bank is subject to particularly stringent anti-money laundering regulations because Italian law does not consider it to be operating within the European Union.
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It may have been and error, if there was fault against the vatican. I don’t think it may have been intentional, they have a lot of regulations to follow.
 
The enemies of the Catholic Church are already playing it up. Personally, I question the source. I don’t trust the Associated Press.
 
One article’s headline I read about this stated that some of the Vatican’s money had been seized by the Italian government, further down in the story it told the real story that some of the money had been frozen in their account until the audits and all questions had been cleared up. From what I’ve been able to gather and it’s rather limited but it seems that some of this issue stems from the Vatican bank just coming into compliance with Italian anti-terrorism and money laundering laws. According to the head of the Vatican bank, they comply with the laws and the Bank of Italy apparently has all the information the investigators would need.

I think anti-Catholics will set upon this, but it won’t be this scandal (if it can be called that) that they will mention though. Back in the1980s the head of the bank committed suicide after it was disclosed the bank was involved in some shady dealings and accused of money laundering and apparently there may have been some things going back as far as Pope John XXIII that hinted at misappropriated funds, money laundering and all sorts of shady dealings. Although, to be honest I’m not sure how unique these issues were to the Vatican bank, just that they were the most highly visible caught.

ChadS
 
Well, lookey-doo. Breaking news. The Italian police just seized $30 million from the Vatican Bank:

timesunion.com/business/article/Italian-police-seize-30-mln-from-Vatican-in-probe-667688.php

And here’s a history lesson from the article. Apparently the Vatican Bank has had no shortage of shady dealings in the past:

*"The Vatican bank was famously implicated in a scandal over the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy’s largest fraud cases.

Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that still remain mysterious.

London investigators first ruled that Calvi committed suicide, but his family pressed for further investigation. Eventually murder charges were filed against five defendants, including a major Mafia figure, and they were tried in Rome and acquitted in 2007.*

*Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.

While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano’s creditors."*

I wasn’t even going to bring up the Nazi-Holocaust connections. The article mentioned it for me:

“Last year, a U.S. appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the Vatican bank filed by Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia who alleged it had accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.”

Nothing to see here, look away, look away. Move along now.
 
GerardMajella said:
And here’s a history lesson from the article. Apparently the Vatican Bank has had no shortage of shady dealings in the past:

"The Vatican bank was famously implicated in a scandal over the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy’s largest fraud cases.
Yep, everyone old enough to remember will be aware of this case. No firm conclusions came of it. But yes, it did not reflect well on the Catholic Church.

However, to go from that situation to say that the Vatican Bank has had “no shortage of shady dealings in the past” seems a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, there was a scandal 25 years ago, and it was never cleared up. But was that part of a pattern, as you seem to allege? I am not aware of any reason to think so.
GerardMajella;7087039:
I wasn’t even going to bring up the Nazi-Holocaust connections. The article mentioned it for me:

“Last year, a U.S. appeals court dismissed a lawsuit against the Vatican bank filed by Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia who alleged it had accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.”
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How amazing. The court dismissed the idea of a Vatican-Nazi financial link, yet you seem intent on making that claim anyways. :rolleyes:
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Dale_M said:
How amazing. The court dismissed the idea of a Vatican-Nazi financial link, yet you seem intent on making that claim anyways. :rolleyes:
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Actually, in the interest of fairness, that’s NOT what the article says. It says:
“The court said the bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts.”
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In other words, the case was dismissed as it was impossible to sue the Vatican because it had diplomatic immunity. It apparently never addressed the validity of the case one way or the other.
 
limabeanerson said:
cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/21/vatican.bank.investigation/index.html?hpt=T2

The article seems biased. I work for a bank and know that things are often not done perfectly and it just requires a simple correction to be filed or whatever the case may be.

Thoughts on this? Even if it turns out to be an innocent mistake, do you think it will be played up by the “anti-Catholics” or will it just blow over?
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It is biased reporting. As you say, sometimes omission with due diligence can be the result of incompetence rather than dishonesty. This matter is still in enquiry stage in relation to due diligence and the matter is already given media coverage. It is also quite common to be served additional and further enquiries together with the actions taken i.e. frozen assets, in respect of compliance with anti-money laundering regulations. It has already made the news over here, so it seems to serve prejudice more than anything really.
 
So this is the best they can do after the Successful visit from the Pope??:rolleyes:
 
Rolltide said:
In other words, the case was dismissed as it was impossible to sue the Vatican because it had diplomatic immunity. It apparently never addressed the validity of the case one way or the other.
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Yep, very true. That’s what I get for not reading the article, and just replying to the quote. 😊
 
Yep, very true. That’s what I get for not reading the article, and just replying to the quote.
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Dale, I appreciate your acknowledgment. I guess what I see are 3 things going on here, past and present: 1.) The Vatican’s current dilemma, where authorities are alleging money laundering. 2.) The Holocaust-related allegations that remain unresolved in terms of their veracity, as noted in the article. 3.) The lawsuit in the 1980’s where the Vatican had to pay $250 million in reparations for its wrongdoings.

When you combine these problems together as a whole, yes, I do see a pattern of corruption. And it’s quite troubling that the Catholic Church can’t keep its nose clean in this area.

Regulatory and law enforcement authorities don’t typically freeze $30 million in bank accounts without good reason for doing so. They don’t take these kinds of draconian measures willy-nilly unless they have sound reasons for doing so. And, frankly, bank fraud today is incredibly difficult to do without being traceable through electronic means. Any kind of wire transfers, or electronic records, are concrete evidence against the guilty parties.

These kinds of stories also makes you wonder what else is going on behind the curtain – These problems are only what is being released to the public. The inside story I am sure is quite a bit more interesting. You just hope this isn’t the tip of the iceberg.

As these scandals are released in the media one after another, you really have to ask yourself what is going on with the Church these days. The pedophile scandal is bad enough, but now money laundering? Lawsuits from Holocaust victims? Not good. It’s enough to make a good Catholic take pause and wonder.
 
JW10631 said:
The enemies of the Catholic Church are already playing it up. Personally, I question the source. I don’t trust the Associated Press.
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I dont trust much of the main stream media at all because their anti Catholic bias is pathetically obvious.
 
cjforJesus said:
I dont trust much of the main stream media at all because their anti Catholic bias is pathetically obvious.
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Hey Bro. I always have trouble with media blaming…Media loves dirt digging…Living above reproach eliminates dirt…Work to get rid of the “dirt” you get way less media attn…The world can recognize what’s real from what’s fabricated…Just like the priest scandal…The CC is being attacked by the enemy attacking the church rather that the CC reaping from what has been sown in the past…
 
Hiskid1973 said:
Hey Bro. I always have trouble with media blaming…Media loves dirt digging…Living above reproach eliminates dirt…Work to get rid of the “dirt” you get way less media attn…The world can recognize what’s real from what’s fabricated…Just like the priest scandal…The CC is being attacked by the enemy attacking the church rather that the CC reaping from what has been sown in the past…
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I don’t know if I completely agree with that as the ones behind the NWO are very much in control of the media and what we see,hear,and read. The media can find dirt where there is none.

Yes,the Church should be above reproach but because of the sins of the flesh we will be punished.
 
cjforJesus said:
I don’t know if I completely agree with that as the ones behind the NWO are very much in control of the media and what we see,hear,and read. The media can find dirt where there is none.

Yes,the Church should be above reproach but because of the sins of the flesh we will be punished.
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Hey I agree that the media is under control of the god of this world…That whole priest issue and the cover up/transfers generated a lot of dirt…Then the bank.
If it is wrong it will just go away…God will vindicate those unjustly accused…
 
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