ROME
Irish Sun
By GARY MENEELY
ONE of the Pope’s top moneymen was behind bars yesterday over an alleged bid to smuggle €20million in cash across Europe.
Cops lifted Monsignor Nunzio Scarano on suspicion of fraud and corruption along with a financial adviser and an Italian secret service agent.
It’s claimed that the Vatican accountant, 61, who spent last night in a Rome prison, had been asked by wealthy pals to spirit in suitcases of money from Switzerland.
In phone calls tapped by police last July, he apparently offered the spook €600,000 to fly the cash into Rome on a private jet, and use his spy skills to avoid customs checks. Chief investigator Nello Rossi said the plane was to have been met on the runway and the wads of notes taken under armed escort to Msgr Scarano’s home.
In the event, the operation was abandoned when the alleged conspirators — who include the money owners’ broker — got cold feet.
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