ROME
Daily Mail (UK)
By HANNAH ROBERTS IN ROME
One of the Vatican’s most senior money-men has been arrested in an alleged plot to smuggle 20 million Euros into Italy on a government plane.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, the bishop of Salerno, and the chief accountant for the Vatican’s vast property portfolio, has been taken into custody along with an Italian secret agent Mario Zito and broker Giovanni Carenzio.
Scarano, 61, who worked at Deutsche bank before taking ecclesiastical vows, is accused of fraud, corruption, and other charges, as part of a wider investigation into the IOR Vatican Bank.
His nickname in Vatican circles was reportedly ‘Don 500 Euros’ thanks to his habit of showing people that he had only the largest bank note in his wallet.
The high profile arrests come just 48 hours after Pope Francis announced the line up for his commission into the Vatican Bank.
The so-called ‘Bank of God ‘ has been tarnished by scandal and suspicion for 30 years.
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