The Vatican Court of Appeals confirmed this Friday the sentence of almost nine years in prison for the former president of the “pope’s bank”, convicted of fraud in the sale of real estate of the Holy See.
Angelo Caloia, former president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, as the Vatican bank is officially called, 83, and the lawyer Gabriele Liuzzo, were sentenced in January 2021 in the first instance for “laundering and embezzlement” to eight years and 11 months in prison, in addition to a fine of 12,500 euros (almost the same figure in dollars).
The sentence, the first handed down by the Vatican State for a financial crime, was considered “irrevocable” by the appeals court and respects the hard line of the Pope Francisco against corruption within the entities of the Catholic Church.
The case broke out in 2014 over the sale of 29 Vatican properties, carried out between 2001 and 2008, in Rome, but also in Milan and Genoa. Twenty of them gave rise to irregularities.
The goods were sold for 34 million euros (almost the same in dollars) below their market value and part of the sums ended up in the pockets of the convicted and then deposited in Swiss accounts.
Caloia was president of the IOR for 20 years, until 2009.
