Vatican fraud trial: Officially stated that he was under ‘psychological pressure’ to find a way out of the spiral of investment chaos | UK News

A former Vatican official says he is under enormous “psychological pressure” to finalize a deal on the troubled Holy See’s investment in a London property, but entered negotiations without the law. and failing to realize this deal leaves the Vatican with nothing.

Fabrizio Tirabassi gave evidence in seven hours about the frenetic meetings he attended in London on 20-22 November 2018, saying that the Holy See had thought it would save the €350 million (300 million euro) investment. million pounds) into Harrod’s former warehouse and avert its losses.

Instead, the contracts negotiated in those days ended up transferring control of the London estate to an Italian broker, Gianluigi Torzi, who had not known the Vatican just a month before but had entered. door because it was introduced by an acquaintance. Pope Francis.

The combination of incompetence, alleged crimes and blind trust in those presented as friends of Pope Francis is at the heart of the Vatican’s fraud and embezzlement trial.

Vatican prosecutors accused 10 people, including Tirabassi, of robbing tens of millions of euros from the Holy See, and Torzi then extorted 15 million euros (£12.8 million) from the Vatican for full power. property ownership. They all denied wrongdoing.

Tirabassi is second on the secretariat of the state administrative office, managing assets of 600 million euros (£511 million), including donations from the faithful to the Pope for charity. .

Starting around 2012, the office decided to diversify its portfolio and invested 200 million euros (£170 million) in a fund that invested in a London warehouse and developed it into a residential area. luxurious.

At the end of 2018, the fund lost 18 million euros in funds from the Holy See and the Vatican’s auditor general is questioning: the auditor has given a year-end deadline for the state secretariat to explain the deal and turn it around. circumstance. Tirabassi said he felt “psychological pressure” to find a way out.

Tirabassi and his boss, Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, worked with a number of Italian businessmen believed to have a “special relationship with the Holy Father,” he said, to figure out how to buy out the manager outright. fund manager, Raffaele Mincione, and acquired a stake in a building owned by the Vatican.

‘In big trouble’

One of those friends of Francis introduced Tirabassi to Torzi, and from mid-October to mid-November, Torzi worked out a solution that was presented at his London office on November 20-22. Tirabassi said.

Mr. Perlasca had sent Tirabassi and the Vatican’s longtime foreign financial adviser to London to find out the details, but they realized that upon arrival they needed a lawyer.

A text message read in court from Mr Perlasca in those days said “we would be in big trouble” if the auditor general found out they had signed a series of new contracts on London properties without attorney present.

Mr Perlasca was against spending £160,000 on a lawyer familiar with the deal, Tirabassi said, so they decided to hand their rights over to Torzi’s lawyer, thinking they were on their side.

The agreement calls for the Holy See to have 30,000 shares of the building in one of Torzi’s holdings, Gutt, with Torzi holding 1,000 shares, but he stipulates in the signed contract that his shares have all voting rights, which means he effectively owns and controls the building.

Tirabassi said he did not realize the “diversity of holdings” at the time and thought that 1,000 shares of Torzi was needed for him to manage the property and would be considered compensation if the Vatican sold the property.

In the end, the Vatican bought 1,000 voting shares of Torzi for 15 million euros, the basis for the blackmail charge against him, which he denies.