VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle
The director and the deputy director of the Vatican Bank have resigned. This comes three days after a Vatican official was arrested in a financial scandal as the pope seeks to clean up the bank.
The Vatican announced on Monday that Paolo Cipriani, director of the Vatican bank, and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, had stepped down “in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See.”
The bank has come under increased scrutiny since Pope Francis assumed the papacy, and has long been of interest to Italian authorities who suspect it is used as a tax haven.
Last week, a Vatican accountant was placed under arrest as part of an investigation by authorities in Rome into the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), as the bank is officially called.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is suspected of taking part in a plot to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) into Italy from Switzerland. He and two other accomplices are thought to have planned to give the money to Scarano’s friends in the shipping industry in the southern city of Salerno. Scarano is being investigated in Salerno on separate charges of money laundering.
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