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  Government in Talks over Bank Scandal Investigation

The Tribune
August 11, 2011

http://www.tribune242.com/sports/08112011_italianbankcase_news_pg1

THE BAHAMAS government is in active discussions with investigators concerning the longstanding, multi-million dollar Banco Ambrosiano investigation, the attorney general confirmed yesterday.

While he was unable to comment further on the requests, Attorney General John Delaney said that there was an active dialogue between Italian authorities and the Office of the Attorney General, which acts as the Bahamas' authority for international legal cooperation.

Since investigators traced several hundred million of missing funds to accounts in the Bahamas in 2005, sources claimed that local authorities had ignored official requests for assistance - the most recent of which was sent in 2008.

Mr Delaney wrote: "Communications between a foreign requesting authority and the OAG in any matter are conducted under an understanding of confidentiality.

"In this matter there have in fact been responses from The Bahamas in relation to requests received and, with the concurrence of the requesting authority, I am able to confirm that dialogue is active and ongoing."

Foreign news reports indicate that the whereabouts of hundreds of millions of dollars linked to the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in the early 1980s is one of the biggest bank scandals in history.

The tale of murder, Mafia plots, international money laundering schemes, and clandestine Masonic sects, placed the Bahamas branch of the bank, Banco Ambrosiano Overseas Limited, at the very centre of the scandal.

According to the press in Italy and the UK, Italian prosecutors are looking for funds allegedly squirreled away by former bank chairman Roberto Calvi, known as "God's banker" because the Vatican Bank was the largest shareholder.

In years leading up to the collapse, Calvi set up companies in the Bahamas and South America to which he funnelled hundreds of millions in bank funds. It is claimed that $800 million in total went missing.

 
 

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