On December 16, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, the court sentenced 75-year-old Cardinal Angelo Beccia to prison.
Source: DW
Details: Becciu was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for conspiracy, fraud, abuse, providing false information, corruption, money laundering, disclosure of secret documents.
One of the episodes of the case involved violations and abuses during the purchase, through donations, of a building in central London at a deliberately inflated price. Losses from this investment in the purchase of real estate, according to auditors, amounted to 89 million pounds sterling (about 104 million euros).
At the time of the crime, Becciu was the third person in the Vatican – Undersecretary of State for General Affairs. The trial of him and his nine accomplices lasted more than two years.
In recent years, Pope Francis has issued a series of decrees aimed at promoting Vatican financial transparency and preventing corruption.
In 2019, he appointed Giuseppe Pinnatone, a former prosecutor in Rome known for fighting the mafia, to head the Vatican tribunal. In 2021, the pontiff issued a decree allowing cardinals to be tried in Vatican court.
Background:
- In 2021, for the first time in history, the Vatican released information about its real estate holdingsindicating that it owns more than 5,000 properties, mainly in Italy.
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2023-12-16 23:14:31
