After being sentenced by the Vatican’s national court for corruption and fraud, London-based Italian banker Raffaele Mincione launched a countersuit in a British court accusing the Vatican of improperly handling and misrecording funds.
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Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, Pope Francis’ chief of staff, has been criticized for allegedly giving false testimony about a $378 million (€350 million) real estate investment deal that went wrong.
It is reported Bloomberg U.K. and Financial Times On Friday, Pena Parra allegedly provided conflicting details about an invoice for the Vatican’s $378 million investment in a Harrods warehouse in Chelsea over the first four years. The Holy See – the title for the universal government of the Catholic Church – made the investment through the fund of London-based Italian banker Raffaele Mincione.
Mincione said the Vatican’s investment would be used to redevelop the warehouse into a luxury residential development. However, when the Vatican purchased the project in 2014, Mincione had not yet received approval from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Planning Committee.
Reports suggest that questions over the deal come as the Vatican decides to pay Italian businessman Gianluigi Torzi a series of payments totaling $19.2m (£15m) for voting shares, giving him ultimate control of the former Harrods warehouse Continue to increase.
Despite their majority ownership, the Vatican ultimately decided to sell the building to Bain Capital for $235m (£186m) in 2022, a loss of nearly $150m.
The Vatican National Court in July 2021 brought corruption and fraud charges against seven defendants, including Mincione, Torzi and former Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was responsible as general administrator Oversee the transaction as they played a role in the transaction. In December 2023, Mincione and Becciu were sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
However, Mincione was able to avoid starting his sentence, giving him time to file a counterclaim in a British court, claiming he had acted “in good faith” during his four-year ordeal.
“God was not with them, and the coronavirus came,” Mincione said, noting that the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus ultimately hampered Vatican investment. “I look forward to these matters being reviewed by an independent and internationally respected judicial system.”
Mincione’s lawyer, Charles Samek, noted that Peña Parra’s answers about the payment to Torzi raised questions about the Vatican’s credibility and financial management over the failure. The deal led the Vatican to overhaul its financial operations. Samek said the Vatican’s charges against Mincione constituted “an incoherent and confusing conspiracy charge.”
Samek questioned Peña Parra about a $6.4 million (£5 million) payment to Torzi that was not properly recorded in an “information note” provided to Vatican officials. The notes were not an “all-encompassing” record, said Peña Parra, who regularly provided Pope Francis with the information after taking over from former Cardinal Becciu in October 2018. Investment update.
“I see the pope every Tuesday,” he said.
Regarding the validity of the payments, Peña Parra said the Vatican was “in trouble” and was doing its best to find a way out of the troubled agreement.
The case is ongoing.
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