A former advisor to Pope Francis and papal contender, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, has been sentenced to 5.5 years imprisonment for financial crimes.
This was after a history-making Vatican fraud trial on Saturday, December 16.
During the trial, the cardinal, otherwise known as the Holy See denied the charges against him.
However, after the verdict his lawyer said he would appeal.
The 75-year-old, once powerful Italian cardinal, was jailed by a Vatican Court for crimes including embezzlement, bringing the trial that lasted two and a half years to an end.
However, Cardinal Becciu had resigned from his high-ranking position in the Vatican in 2020 under orders by the pope.
This was after a possible investigation into Cardinal Becciu’s financial dealings was published in an Italian magazine, L’Espresso.
Notably, Cardinal Becciu is the first ever cardinal to be prosecuted by Vatican’s court.
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Details of the Crimes by the Cardinal
The charges held against the man of cloth revolved around the purchase of a luxury property in London’s affluent area of Chelsea.
Furthermore, the property was purchased while Becciu was a senior leader in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.
Consequently, according to Vatican News, the property was sold later at a loss of at least Ksh 23,641,198,400 ($152 million).
Additionally, the two financiers who were involved in the property sale were also found guilty of financial crimes and received sentences of five-and-half years and six years.
According to reports, the Holy See initially invested $200 million in a fund run by Raffaele Mincione, a London-based Italian financier, who controlled a 45% stake in the Chelsea property.
This initial investment was authorized when Cardinal Becciu was chief of staff. The other half of the building was owned by Mincione.
Later, another financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was bought in to help buy the property but he is accused of structuring the deal which left him in control of the building and the Vatican purchasing an empty box.
Top Vatican officials noted that they were not well informed on these dealings and had to pay Torzi millions to get out of the deal.
Prosecution of the Financiers
Therefore, after these shady dealings, Torzi stood trial for extortion, money laundering, fraud and embezzlement. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Mincione, on the other hand was charged with embezzlement, abuse of office, fraud and money laundering and given a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
However, the purchase of this property was not the only bone of contention.
During the trial, Vatican prosecutors argued that an amount of money was embezzled by the Holy See.
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Some of this money was purported to have been used for personal purposes by a security consultant in the Vatican including over Kshs8,398,846 ($54,000) spent on clothing, footwear and fashion accessories from high-end brands such as Prada, Gucci and Hermes.
Pope Francis’s efforts to clean up the Vatican
In addition to its historic nature, the trial has been a critical test for Pope Francis and his quest to bring transparency and accountability to the Vatican’s notoriously murky finances.
Throughout his pontificate, the pope has sought to clean up the Vatican’s Bank and establish a financial regulatory system.
