VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times
By Tom Kington
December 11, 2013
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s bank has unearthed more than 100 suspicious payments this year after starting full-scale checks on its customers for the first time to crack down on money laundering, up from six last year, said an official knowledgeable about the cleanup effort.
The official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the inquiry publicly, spoke after the Vatican said Monday that it had been given a positive progress report by Moneyval, the Council of Europe money-laundering monitor, after a middling grade in a full evaluation last year. The new report, which was signed off Monday and will be formally released by Moneyval on Thursday, gives an assessment but no grades.
Rene Bruelhart, the Swiss banking expert serving as director of the bank’s new oversight body, acknowledged last week that “there has been a very significant jump in suspicious transaction reports in 2013.” Bruelhart was appointed last year as part of a drive by former Pope Benedict XVI and his successor, Pope Francis, to reform the scandal-dogged institution.
Sporting well-groomed stubble and slick suits and dubbed the “James Bond” of the Vatican by the Italian media — much to his embarrassment — Bruelhart appears a fish out of water at the Holy See, where he keeps a room at the residence that also houses Francis.
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