ITALY
Reuters
Sun Jul 21, 2013
* Magistrates’ says prelate used web of contacts illegally
* Scarano lawyer says document has no proof, only suspicions
* Scarano is target of two Italian investigations
* IOR in spotlight over global rules against tax evasion
* Pope has made cleaning up the Vatican a goal of his papacy
By Philip Pullella and Massimiliano Di Giorgio
ROME, July 21 (Reuters) – A senior Catholic prelate arrested last month used his influence at the Vatican to provide private, illegal financial services for rich friends, Italian investigators say in a judicial document.
They say Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who is the target of two Italian investigations and had accounts at the Vatican bank, engaged in “totally private, illegal activity which was also aimed at serving outsiders”.
Scarano was arrested in Rome on June 28 along with a self-styled financier and a member of Italy’s secret services and formally accused of taking part in a plot to smuggle 20 million euros ($26.28 million) into Italy from Switzerland. .
Reuters has obtained the 28-page document in which magistrates in Rome had asked a judge to order his arrest.
Scarano’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, denied the accusations it contains. “They don’t have any evidence to prove all of this,” he said on Sunday. “These are just suspicions”.
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