ROME
International Business Times

BY VISHAKHA SONAWANE ON 01/19/16

A court in Rome acquitted a former Vatican accountant Monday of corruption charges and plotting to smuggle millions of untaxed euros into Italy from Switzerland. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was also facing a separate trial for money laundering in the southern Italian town of Salerno, charges he denied.

Prosecutors alleged that Scarano conspired to smuggle 20 million euros (about $22 million), using a private plane, from Switzerland in a tax-evasion scheme on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples, Agence France-Presse reported. The Rome court acquitted Scarano of corruption and attempted money-smuggling charges but found him guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, for which the ex-accountant was handed down a two-year suspended sentence, according to AFP. Scarano, who has been nicknamed “Mr. 500” for his reported tendency to carry 500 euro bills on his…