At the conclusion of a historic trial, a Vatican court condemned a previously powerful Italian cardinal to five years and six months in prison for financial crimes on Saturday.
Angelo Becciu, 75, was the highest senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court. He was a previous adviser to Pope Francis and was once considered a papal contender himself.
Fabio Viglione, his lawyer, said they respected the punishment, which included an 8,000-euro ($8,700) fine, but would appeal, maintaining Becciu’s innocence.
The cardinal was one of 10 defendants accused of embezzlement, abuse of power, and witness tampering in a trial centered on the Vatican’s disastrous investment in a luxury skyscraper in London.
They included financiers, attorneys, and ex-Vatican officials accused of a variety of financial offenses; all except one, Becciu’s former secretary Mauro Carlino, were found guilty on Saturday.
Court President Giuseppe Pignatone delivered out punishments ranging from a fine to more than seven years in prison, more than two and a half years after the trial began.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of 166 million euros from individuals convicted, as well as compensation for civil parties in excess of 200 million euros.
The Holy See declared itself a “offended party,” and four Vatican corporations filed civil suits, seeking hundreds of millions of euros in damages, including moral and reputational harm.
Murky Finances
The trial shed light on the Holy See’s shady finances, which Pope Francis has attempted to clean up since taking over the Catholic Church in March 2013.
Just weeks before the first hearing, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the authority to try cardinals and bishops, which were previously handled by a cardinal-led court.
The trial revolved around the purchase of a building in London’s affluent Chelsea neighborhood, which resulted in losses that the Vatican alleged were diverted from charitable funds.
Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement for investing $200 million in a fund established by financier Raffaele Mincione in 2013-2014, which the judges claimed was extremely dangerous.
According to prosecutors, some of this money was used to purchase a portion of the Sloane Avenue property, in which the Vatican lost between 140 million and 190 million euros.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had asked for seven years and three months in prison for Becciu, who has always maintained that he never took any money.
Mincione was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Saturday, while another broker involved in the London trade, Gianluigi Torzi, was sentenced to six years.
Charitable Causes
More than 80 sessions were held in a designated room within the Vatican Museums, where a painting of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.
The case has been bogged down by procedural bickering, with defense attorneys arguing about a lack of access to important evidence.
From 2011 to 2018, Becciu, a globetrotting former Vatican diplomat, was number two in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope.
He was promoted to head the department in charge of saint creation until abruptly resigned in September 2020 after learning of an investigation against him.
Initially, this was about an investigation into 125,000 euros in Vatican funds he transferred to a charity managed by his brother in his native Sardinia. On Saturday, he was found guilty of conflict of interest.
Becciu was then brought into the London purchase inquiry.
Becciu was also found guilty of making a 570,000-euro payment to a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna, to assist in negotiating the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali. Marogna was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.
Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, was condemned to seven years in prison on Saturday, and Fabrizio Tirabassi, a former Vatican employee, was sentenced to seven and a half years.