Vatican monsignor arrested over alleged fraud, corruption and slander, lawyer says
By Claudio Lavanga and Ian Johnston, NBC News
A monsignor suspended from his job as an accountant at the Vatican has been arrested, a papal spokesman said Friday.
Greg Burke, the senior Vatican communication adviser, confirmed Monsignor Nunzio Scarano had been detained.
Scarano normally works as an accountant for APSA, the body that manages the Vatican's real estate, but was suspended over alleged financial offenses.
The cleric’s lawyer Silverio Sica told The Associated Press that his client was arrested on Wednesday over separate allegations and was now accused of fraud, corruption and slander.
Sica laid out what the prosecutors claimed had happened in the interview with the AP:
He said Scarano was a middleman in the operation: Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros ($26 million) they had given him to invest.
Sica said Scarano persuaded Carenzio to return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian government aircraft. Such a move would presumably prevent any reporting of the money coming into Italy.
The operation failed because Carenzio reneged on the deal, Sica said.
Zito, nevertheless, demanded his 400,000 euro commission. Scarano paid him an initial 200,000 euros by check, which Zito deposited, Sica said.
But in a bid to not have the second check deposited at the bank, Scarano filed a report for a missing 200,000 euro check, even though he knew Zito had it, Sica said.
Carenzio and Zito also were arrested Wednesday along with Scarano, Sica said.
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