Trial of Prelate Accused of Cash Smuggling Opens

adnkronos
December 3, 2013

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Vatican-Trial-of-prelate-accused-of-cash-smuggling-opens_32942685818.html


Vatican City, 3 Dec. (AKI) - High-ranking Vatican cleric Monsignor Nunzio Scarano went on trial in Italy on Tuesday accused of corruption and slander over a 20 million euro smuggling plot.

A court in Rome said witnesses from the prosecution would be heard on 13 December .

Scarano, Vatican accountant, was arrested on 28 June together with Italian policeman and former secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, and financial broker Giovanni Carenzio over the alleged smuggling plot.

All three suspects are accused of attempting to smuggle the cash to Italy from Switzerland on a private jet on behalf of wealthy ship owners from Naples.

Scarano allegedly paid a 400,000 euro bribe in the alleged plot which went awry when Carenzio failed to show up with the money that had been entrusted to him.

Carenzio, and Zito, who was supposed to fly the private jet, are being tried in a separate, fast-track trial opening on 15 January.

Scarono has also been targeted by a separate probe investigating a series of suspicious transactions involving the recycling of cheques described as church donations through the Vatican Bank - a lender long-tainted by accusations of money-laundering.

He has denied wrongdoing in that case. He was suspended in May from his post within the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (Apsa) , the body that manages the Vatican's assets including its vast real estate portfolio.

Dubbed "Monsignor 500 euros" by Italian media for his habit of flashing around big bank notes, Scarono reportedly led a lavish lifestyle and had several accounts at the IOR which were frozen in July.

His arrest came days after Pope Francis set up a five-member investigative panel to probe the activities of the Vatican Bank or Institute of Religious Works (IOR) as it is formally known.