VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 28, 2016
VATICAN CITY
The Vatican’s financial watchdog agency registered a three-fold increase in suspicious transactions undertaken in the city state’s financial institutions in 2015, marking 544 activities as questionable and freezing or halting movement of a total of some $2.4 million and 15.3 million Euros.
The Financial Information Authority, or AIF, says it also made 17 reports to the Vatican’s Office of the Promoter of Justice for possible review of crimes such as fraud, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and “more serious financial crimes … such as market disruption in foreign states.”
The watchdog agency revealed the statistics with the release of its fourth annual report Thursday. The agency, which was started by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 but continued and strengthened under Pope Francis, has been working to bring the Vatican’s diverse set of financial organizations into compliance with international standards.
Thursday’s release comes as the city state’s financial dealings have again been in the spotlight, with news in recent weeks that the Vatican had suspended an external audit it had contracted with the international firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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