ROME
News 24

Rome – A former Vatican accountant known as “Mr 500” for his cash-rich lifestyle was acquitted by an Italian court on Monday of corruption and attempted money-smuggling.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was a chief accountant for APSA, the organisation that manages the Vatican’s vast real estate portfolio, before his arrest in June 2013 for allegedly plotting to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy.

Investigators had accused Scarano of hatching a plot to use a private plane to repatriate €20m that were untaxed from Switzerland, on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples.

A court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling, but guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, slapping him with a two-year suspended sentence.