VATICAN CITY
GlobalPost
Agence France-Presse August 1, 2014
The Vatican bank on Friday denied that its new chief executive faces a conflict of interest as his son works for a company brought in to audit the scandal-hit institution’s accounts.
Italian magazine L’Espresso reported that Jean-Baptiste de Franssu’s son works for Promontory Financial Group, which is conducting a forensic investgation into the bank and its client relationships.
Louis-Victor Douville works as a London-based analyst for the US company, according to its website.
“The question of a conflict of interest is not an issue for us because, by law, the AIF (the Vatican’s financial watchdog), has approved the appointment of our president,” bank spokesman Max Hohenberg told AFP.
The issue is the latest scandal to hit the Vatican bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), after a year of internal investigations led to the closure or suspension of thousands of suspicious, ineligible or inactive accounts.
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