Vatican indicts ex-bank head, says embezzlement loss is $62M

Mar 3, 2018

|Associated Press

Vatican indicts ex-bank head, says embezzlement loss is $62M — Members of the Swiss Guard march in front of the Torre di Niccolo, the headquarters of the Institute for the Works of Religion, better known as the “Vatican bank.” (Credit: Stock image.)

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 50 million euros ($62 million) from real estate sales.

The trial of Angelo Caloia and his lawyer is due to begin March 15. A third suspect died while under investigation.

The Institute for Religious Works said in a statement late Friday that Caloia and his lawyer were charged with alleged acts of embezzlement and self-laundering between 2001 and 2008, when the bank disposed of “a considerable part of its real estate assets.”

The IOR, as the bank is known, is joining a civil case alongside the criminal trial to try to recover some of the Vatican’s losses.

Caloia and the lawyer deny wrongdoing.