Police in
the Vatican have prevented a pair of fraudsters from trying to enter the
Vatican bank with a suitcase stuffed with trillions of euros of fake bond
certificates
The Telegraph, Tom Kington, Rome, 30 Mar 2014
 |
| The middle aged men, an American and a Dutch citizen of Malaysian origin, arrived at the main gate of the Vatican on the morning of March 11, telling Swiss guards they had an appointment at the bank Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP |
Two
smartly-dressed men armed with forged bond certificates worth trillions of
euros have been caught while trying to talk their way into the Vatican's bank,
in a spectacularly bungled fraud scheme.
The middle
aged men, an American and a Dutch citizen of Malaysian origin, arrived at the
main gate of the Vatican on the morning of March 11, telling Swiss guards they
had an appointment at the bank, which has been dogged by scandals over the
years.
When bank
staff said they had no record of an appointment, the two men said cardinals
were expecting them – arousing the suspicions of Vatican police, who called in
colleagues from Italy's tax police.
"When
we arrived, the Vatican police had opened the men's briefcase to find bond
certificates valued in US and Hong Kong dollars, as well as euros, worth €3
trillion," said Lt Col Davide Cardia, a tax police official.
The two
men, Lt Col Cardia, said, were likely planning to use the certificates to
fraudulently open a line of credit at the bank.
Related
Articles
- 'Monsignor 500' charged with laundering millions through Vatican bank 21 Jan 2014
- Swiss Guard claims Vatican official made sexual advances to him 06 Jan 2014
- Pope Francis: corrupt should be tied to a rock and thrown into the sea 11 Nov 2013
- Vatican gives new life to Latin with new journal 08 Nov 2013
- Banks 'wooed Vatican priests with massages' 03 Oct 2013
- Vatican bank publishes accounts for the first time 01 Oct 2013
"We
noticed the grammar of the English used on the certificates was full of
mistakes – it looked like they had been written using Google Translate,"
he told The Daily Telegraph. "Searching their hotel room we found the
seals used to forge the bond certificates."
Since the
men were stopped before carrying out a fraud, they were released under Italian
law and have now likely left Italy, said Lt. Col. Cardia.
"The
men have been caught trying this before in other countries and seem to go
around the world trying their luck with banks," he said.
The men may
have been lured by the reputation of the Vatican bank – known as the IOR – for
attracting money launders and mafiosi.
Last week,
Italian prosecutors said two former senior officials at the bank, Paolo
Cipriani and Massimo Tulli, would stand trial for money laundering.
But the
Vatican is also trying hard to end corruption at the bank and close shadowy
accounts opened by lay customers over the years, particularly following Pope
Francis's threat to close the bank down.
"We
were surprised the two men tried this scam with the IOR – maybe they didn't
know what is going on there at the moment," said Lt Col Cardia.
Father
Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the police operation "shows the
controls are working."
But he
added, "I don't think we're talking about a plot by criminal masterminds
if they managed to get caught at the first hurdle."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.