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Priest arrested over alleged ‎€30m fraud

The Guardian (UK)
February 10, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/italy-arrests-former-prelate-over-alleged-30m

Patrizio Benvenuti, 64, who is accused of stealing €30m from nearly 300 victims, most of them elderly.

Italian police have announced the arrest of a retired cleric suspected of having defrauded investors of ‎€30m (£23m), which they were told would help fund a humanitarian foundation.

The Argentinian-born Patrizio Benvenuti, 64, former military chaplain in Italy who retired to the Canary Islands, had won the confidence of investors due to his work in the Vatican’s legal tribunal.

He has been placed under house arrest and a European arrest warrant has also been issued for one of his close collaborators, 54-year-old Christian Ventisette, a French businessman involved in finance and property.

The inquiry has identified nine suspected accomplices and nearly 300 victims, most of them elderly people living abroad.

The financial police said on Wednesday that the victims sent money “in the hope of entrusting their savings to finance and property-sector experts as well as with the will to contribute to and help the humanitarian foundation Kepha,” which was run by Benvenuti.

Roughly €30m of the money was allegedly laundered through individuals and companies in Italy and overseas.

The suspected fraud was exposed by a nun who used to work with Benvenuti.

Italian police have since seized an €8m villa in Piombino, facing Elba island on Italy’s Tuscan coast, as well as an archaeological site in Sicily among other property.

The European warrant also calls for the seizure of a magnificent villa on the French island of Corsica.

 




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