Men 'deposit bonds' in Vatican bank

Sky News (Australia)
March 30, 2014

http://www.skynews.com.au/offbeat/article.aspx?id=962619

Vatican police have apprehended a US man and a Dutch man trying to deposit billions of euros and US dollars in fake bonds in the Vatican bank.

The men were stopped by the police when they approached one of the guarded gates at the Vatican and asked to be let through to the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) as the bank is formally known, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

The bonds were discovered in a briefcase they were carrying and the men were handed over to Italy's financial police, who found false passports and other fake documents in their hotel rooms.

The haul came a day after Italian prosecutors said two former top executives at the Vatican bank will go on trial for money laundering in a case that led to the seizure of 23 million euros ($A34.37 million).

IOR press officer Max Hohenberg said the US man and the Dutch man "are neither clients of the bank, nor were they expected".

The bank, which handles the accounts of Catholic clerics and congregations around the world, has a murky reputation but the Vatican has vowed to clean it up and bring it in line with international laws.

Lombardi said Saturday's episode "shows the controls are working. But I don't think we're talking about a plot by criminal masterminds if they managed to get caught at the first hurdle".

In February, Pope Francis created a new finance ministry to oversee the Holy See's economic affairs in a move the Vatican said was aimed at increasing transparency.