Vatican prosecutor seeks 7 years in jail for cardinal, confiscation of $460 million from 10 people

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Vatican prosecutor seeks 7 years in jail for cardinal, confiscation of $460 million from 10 people

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Updated 7:55 AM EDT, July 26, 2023

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican prosecutor asked a court Wednesday to convict 10 people, including a cardinal, of a range of financial crimes, sentence them to three to 13 years in prison and order the confiscation of some 415 million euros ($460 million) to pay the Holy See back for bad investments and financial losses over the past decade.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi ended six days of aggressive closing arguments with his requests for a verdict and sentencing. After a summer pause, the defense and civil parties in the Vatican’s “trial of the century” will deliver their closing arguments, with Judge Giuseppe Pignatone’s court expected to deliver a verdict before the end of the year.

Diddi justified the substantial requests for prison time, fines and confiscation of assets based on what he called the “many crimes against the patrimony of the Holy See.” He has estimated the combined losses at between 139 million and 189 million euros ($154 million and $210 million).

“Up until now, no one has advanced an offer to pay back the damage,” he said. “These are people with means.”

The sprawling trial originated in the Vatican’s 350 million euro ($385 million) investment in a luxury London property but grew to include two other tangents implicating Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once a papal contender and the first-ever cardinal to stand trial in the Vatican criminal court.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/vatican-scandal-trial-cardinal-becciu-pope-201855b117772ec83b6cc3f1b804845e

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From Wikipedia:

Giovanni Angelo Becciu (born 2 June 1948) is an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018. On 24 September 2020, he resigned the rights associated with the cardinalate.

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In July 2021, a Vatican judge ordered Becciu and nine others to stand trial on charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and subornation. The charges are in connection with an investment in London real estate. Becciu said he was innocent and "the victim of a conspiracy". Becciu's trial is the first criminal trial of a cardinal in a Vatican court.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Angelo_Becciu

[Major Nikon]

1. How do you tell when a member is skimming off the top...

when the entire organization has been skimming off the top for thousands of years?