VATICAN CITY — Vatican prosecutors have indicted the former president of the Vatican bank and his lawyer on embezzlement charges, holding them responsible for losses of more than $62 million from real estate sales.
The trial of Angelo Caloia and his lawyer, Gabriele Liuzzo, begins March 15. A third suspect died while under investigation.
The Institute for Religious Works said late Friday that Caloia and his lawyer were charged with embezzlement and self-laundering between 2001 and 2008, when the bank disposed of “a considerable part of its real estate assets.” The scam allegedly involved the suspects selling Vatican-owned real estate under value to offshore companies that then resold the buildings at market value, with the suspects profiting from the difference, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The IOR, as the bank is known, is joining a civil case alongside the criminal trial to try to recover some of the losses.
The Vatican announced the criminal investigation into Caloia, the IOR president from 1989-2009, attorney Liuzzo and the late bank director general, Lelio Scaletti, in 2014 after bank officials discovered irregularities in IOR accounts and operations. The suspects have denied wrongdoing.
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