Vatican freezes funds of cleric suspected in money laundering
12 July, 2013 - The Vatican has frozen funds belonging to a senior priest at the
centre of a suspected money laundering operation as part of an investigation into
the case and could extend the inquiry to other individuals, the Vatican said on Friday.
In an update on the case of Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, arrested June 28 by Italian police,
Holy See’s Spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi released a statement saying the chief justice
official of Vatican City State has ordered that the accounts of the monsignor at the
Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly known as the Vatican bank, be frozen.
He is accused of involvement in a plot to smuggle €20 million in cash into Italy from
Switzerland. The statement said the Vatican’s own investigation into Scarano was
triggered by several suspicious transactions reports filed with the Vatican's financial
watchdog agency known as the Vatican Financial Intelligence Unit (AIF). "The inquiries
may also be extended to other persons," the statement added. A month prior to his
arrest, Msgr. Scarano had been suspended from his job at the Vatican’s real estate
department, after it was found Italian police was investigation him in another financial
case. Citing IOR's new head, Ernst von Freyberg, Fr. Lombardi said, "The Vatican
is determined to pursue a zero-tolerance policy on possible financial irregularities,
whether by clerics or lay persons."