Banco Ambrosiano Scandal
The apparent suicide in June, 1982 of an Italian financier known as
”God’s banker,” who was found hanged beneath London’s Blackfriars
Bridge, has added to the mystery of a major Italian financial scandal in
which the Vatican appears heavily involved.
Five
days after he vanished, his secretary jumped to her death from a window
of the Milan bank. Mr. Calvi 61 years old was found in London hanging
from a rope under Blackfriars Bridge on June 18, 1982.
He had joined Milan’s Banco Ambrosiano as a clerk, worked his way up
to become its president and, along the way, through a series of
spectacular deals, transformed what had been a modest regional bank into
a major financial power, with assets of $18.7 billion in 1981.
”The Ambrosiano affair makes everyone wonder about the Vatican’s
finances, but it really illustrates the fragility of the international
banking system that we are all trying to preserve,” said Guido Carli, a
former governor of the Bank of Italy and now a prominent industrialist.
As usual with such scandals in Italy, there are also unverifiable
reports of the involvement of organised crime figures and even a
recently discovered secret Masonic lodge opposed to the government that
are somehow involved.
There are also reports that Banco Ambrosiano may have been a target
of the British secret service, which is said to suspect it of financing
Argentine arms purchases during the war over the Falkland Islands.
The Bank of Italy first became suspicious about Banco Ambrosiano in
1978 during a general crackdown on bank fraud, but immediately ran into a
heavy political opposition.
This Vatican bank is officially known as the Institute of Religious
Relations, from 1971 to 1989 its President was Archbishop Paul Marcinkus
from Cicero, Illinois. Before that, he worked as a bodyguard for Pope
Paul VI. However, he will be remembered for a scandal that broke out in 1982.
Suicide Corrected as Murder
The scandal began with the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, one of
Italy’s largest private banks, with a debt of $1.4 billion. Soon
after, Roberto Calvi, the bank’s managing director and friend of
Marcinkus, was found dead hanging under a bridge over the river Thames
in London, in England.
The location of Blackfriars bridge was seen as indicating a link to
P2 because members of the illegal group referred to themselves as ‘frati
neri’, Italian for ‘black friars’.
The
death of Calvi, the bank’s chairman and a P2 member, was initially
deemed to have been a suicide. But subsequent investigations pointed to
it having been a murder which Italian prosecutors believe was the work
of the Sicilian Mafia.
The organised crime syndicate had used Ambrosiano to recycle funds,
some of which were moved out of Italy via the Vatican bank. No-one was
ever convicted for carrying out or commissioning Calvi ‘s murder.
Five people, including mafia boss Masonic grand master Licio Gelli were
tried in connection with his murder, but were all acquitted. It is best
known internationally for having been at the heart of a murder mystery
involving both the Mafia and the Vatican that centred on the death of
“God’s banker”!
It appears that the Vatican, through the Vatican Bank,
is the main shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano and that they have
channelled a billion dollars from the bank to 10 subsidiaries. Several
rumours surrounding the scandal were, that other shareholders at the
bank were involved in this organised crime and some were even members of the secret Masonic lodge-P2.
When Italian investigators tried to interview Marcinkus about the
scandal, he was uncooperative. He refused to leave the Vatican and even
refused to answer questions, referring to his diplomatic immunity.
Marcinkus was eventually indicted,
but he never went to trial because the charges against him were
dismissed. He remained in charge of the Vatican bank for seven years.
Prince Bernhard vetoed Pope John Paul I
The
scandal even gave rise to some conspiracy theories. The most famous was
used in the plot of Godfather Part III, as Pope John Paul I was
assassinated by the mafia on orders in August 1978. John Paul I had been
chosen as Pope in 1978, but Prince Bernhard the prince of the
Netherlands vetoed it. He was found dead in bed after only 33 days in
office. The official cause of death was a heart attack, but no autopsy
was performed. According to the conspiracy theory, he was killed because
he wanted to end the relationship between the church and the private
bank.
According to senior officials investigating the scandal who do not
wish to be identified, the Banco Ambrosiano affair centres on the close
but ambiguous relationship between Mr. Calvi and Archbishop Paul C.
Marcinkus, a 60-year-old native of Cicero, Ill., who for the last 10
years has run the Vatican’s free-wheeling but extremely secretive bank.
The bank’s formal name is Instituto per le Opere de Religione, the
Institute for Religious Works, and it is commonly referred to as I.O.R.
Archbishop Marcinkus, a former chief of papal security, has been a
controversial figure in financial circles because, as head of the
Vatican bank, he was responsible for the Vatican’s losing a reported $30
million in the collapse in 1974 of the business empire of Michele
Sindona, the Sicilian financier.
During 1980 and 1981, investigating officials say, the late Mr. Calvi
mounted an extensive lending program to the Peruvian, Nicaraguan and
Nassau subsidiaries of the Banco Ambrosiano group, using funds borrowed
in the Eurodollar market that eventually totalled some $1.2 billion to
$1.4 billion.
Most of this money was then lent to a series of Panamanian companies
with names such as Bellatrix Inc., Manic Inc. and Astrolfine Inc., most
of which are thought to have no more than mail addresses. The loans were
granted roughly evenly by Banco Ambrosiano in Milan and by its
Luxembourg subsidiary, Banco Ambrosiano Holdings.
But
Mr. Calvi lent these funds, investigators say, only after receiving
what bankers call ”letters of comfort” from the Vatican bank. These
letters, though vaguely worded, implied that the Vatican had an interest
in the companies and was aware of their borrowing plans. Although such
letters do not constitute a legal guarantee that the signatory will
repay the loans, they are often issued to reassure lenders that a
borrowing company has reputable backing.
But the Vatican bank also demanded and received what investigators
call a ”counter letter” signed by Mr. Calvi and absolving it from all
legal and financial responsibility for the loans to the Panamanian
companies.
Investigating officials believe the Vatican did have an interest in
the Panamanian companies and probably controlled a number of them. But
they are convinced that Mr. Calvi was also part owner and effective
manager of most of the companies and used the money they borrowed to buy
shares in Banco Ambrosiano and probably in other companies as well.
By now, one senior official involved in the investigation estimates,
the Panamanian companies own around 20 percent of Banco Ambrosiano.
House of Cards
As interest rates rose and the dollar strengthened, investigators
found it likely that it became increasingly difficult for Mr Calvi to
pay his loans in dollars with the dividends from his shares, which were
often paid out in weak Italian lira. To remain solvent, he was forced to
borrow more.
”It was a house of cards that was bound to fall down,”
one official said.
There
is speculation that the Archbishop may have agreed to the deal to help
out an old colleague and financial adviser since Banco Ambrosiano is
regarded as one of Italy’s ”Catholic” banks with longstanding links to
the Vatican. He may also have wished to protect the Vatican’s own stake
in Banco Ambrosiano, which is assumed to be far more than the 1.8
percent shown by the latest official figures.
In the view of the Italian Treasury Minister, Nino Andreatta, and of
Mr. Campi, the central bank’s governor, the Vatican acted improperly in
issuing letters of comfort to Banco Ambrosiano at the same time as it
asked the bank to absolve it from any responsibility for the Panamian
companies. They believe it must therefore bear at least a moral
responsibility for any losses incurred, according to senior officials.
Toward the end of his life, Mr. Calvi is said to have become
increasingly involved with suspected underworld figures as his needs for
ready cash increased. There are also rumours that he lent Peru $200
million to buy Exocet missiles for the Argentine forces during the
Falkland war and thus became a target for the British secret service.
In light of the rumours, officials at the normally staid Bank of
Italy and Finance Ministry expressed amazement at the finding by a
London coroner that Mr. Calvi did indeed commit suicide by hanging
himself under the bridge. The common reaction was:
”Why bother to go to London to do that?”
Scandalised Money Laundering
Paolo Cipriani, director of the bank, and his deputy Marco Tullio
have resigned after the arrest by Italian tax police of a Vatican
monsignor who used to work as a senior account manager in the
Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which
manages Vatican real estate holdings. The monsignor, Nunzio Scarano, is
being questioned in jail over allegations of money laundering,
corruption and fraud.
Pope Francis is scandalised and angry at the goings on behind the
scenes at the IOR. He has decided to begin his planned clean-up of the
Roman Curia, the central government of the Church, with a complete
shakeup at the IOR.
Vatican security officers have been instructed to freeze any attempt
to meddle with IOR documents, while an internal commission of inquiry
with wide powers prepares a secret report on the current financial
shenanigans, for the eyes of Pope Francis only.
The Vatican Bank has a damaged image at a time when the Pope is
urging his flock to turn their attention to the plight of the world’s
poor. There is speculation that one of Pope Francis’ options could be to
dissolve the IOR altogether and transfer all Vatican banking to a
reliable commercial bank.
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FINAL WAKE UP CALL
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The Bankers of God (Film 2002)
https://rumble.com/v2cvjks-i-banchieri-di-dio-il-caso-calvi-the-bankers-of-god-the-calvi-affair-film-2.html?mref=fnp0r&mc=5q83h
Adaneth - Cinema&TV
The Bankers of
God: The Calvi Affair (Italian: I banchieri di Dio also known as The
God's Bankers) is an Italian drama film directed in 2002 by Giuseppe
Ferrara. Audio in Italian with English subtitles.
The film tells the
story of the scandal of Banco Ambrosiano, mainly related to the figure
of Roberto Calvi. The Clearstream scandal exploded as a case full of
intricate affairs involving the financial world, the Vatican, the
Masonic Lodge P2, the Italian Secret Service, the Secret Intelligence
Service, the Italian politics, the Mafia and the Banda della Magliana.
The movie narrates in detail all these connections, trying to
reconstruct events and plots.
