Financial scandal in the Vatican: 40% more suspicious transactions detected in 2020

The financial control organ of the Holy See carried out 89 suspicious activity reports in 2020, 39% more than in 2019, when a total of 64 suspicious activities were detected, according to the 2020 report from the Financial Supervisory and Information Authority (ASIF), published this Thursday.

The document reveals that 49 requests for information were exchanged with other Vatican Authorities on 124 subjects.

For the Holy See, it is the sign of “significant growth compared to the previous year, which confirms the important synergies that have been created between the institutions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State in the conflict to criminal activities“.

The report’s publication comes 12 days before the Vatican court places Cardinal Angelo Becciu, whom the Pope fired for his dubious handling of the reserved funds, on the platform. of the Secretary of State in the opaque purchase of a luxury property in London that caused a millionaire’s hole in the coffers of the Vatican. In addition, for this case, the Vatican will prosecute nine other people.

Through two memoranda of understanding at the international level with the active collaboration of the Vatican investigative forces, ASIF exchanged 58 requests for information with foreign Financial Information Units (FIUs) on 196 files, concerning the 18 responses that were produced in 2019; and sent 19 spontaneous communications on 104 subjects.

This is clear from the report presented today by ASIF, the entity created by Benedict XVI in 2010 to monitor the financial activities of the Holy See. In all, the Holy See exchanges tax information with 60 foreign jurisdictions. The last were Finland, the Cook Islands, the Czech Republic and Serbia.

ASIF provided tax information to other Vatican authorities 49 times out of a total of 124 people.