ITALY
ANSA
(ANSA) – Rome, June 19 – An Italian cardinal has been caught on a police wiretap allegedly claiming he deliberately kept Pope Francis in the dark about a 30-million-euro financial move he was planning to make.
Although he is not under investigation and denies all wrongdoing, Cardinal Gisueppe Versaldi looks set to be embarrassed by the probe, which is linked to the allegedly fraudulent financial collapse of a southern Italian nursing-home chain run by an order of nuns.
Rome prosecutors have asked colleagues in the southern city of Trani for copies of the case papers, judicial sources said late Friday.
Police said Friday the wiretap of a conversation between Cardinal Versaldi and a manager is among those to feature in the probe into the alleged fraudulent bankruptcy of the Divina Provvidenza (Divine Providence) chain. In the conversation, Versaldi allegedly suggests the pope should not be informed that 30 million euros belonging to Rome’s Bambino Gesù children’s hospital and stemming from Italian public coffers were to be used for the acquisition of the IDI skin hospital company.
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