Vatican bank has no secret accounts, official says

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Vatican bank has no secret accounts, official says

ROME | Sun Jun 10, 2012 11:52am EDT
(Reuters) - A senior official of the Vatican's bank denied on Sunday a reports that prominent Italian lay clients including politicians held secret numbered accounts at the institution, which is caught up in a money laundering investigation.

The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) has been in the spotlight since 2010 when Italian investigators froze 23 million euros ($28.75 million) of its funds in Italian banks as part of their inquiry.

In a newspaper interview published on Sunday, IOR's Director General Paolo Cipriani denied allegations which have surfaced since its president was abruptly ousted.

"There are no numbered accounts or accounts of politicians," Cipriani told Corriere della Sera. "The only non-clergy Italians that hold accounts are employees or pensioners of the Holy See."

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/10/us-vatican-bank-idUSBRE8570HV20120610

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Well they aren't secret any more.

This is the second time in recent history that a major banking scandal has broken out in the holy see.

[Drale]

2. Why would they admit they have SECRET accounts? /nt

[xfundy]

3. Well, of course we can trust them!

After all, they're Christians, and therefore would never lie!

[laconicsax]

4. Where's the passage in the Bible on running a bank?

[dimbear]

5. The fish has long been a symbol of the Christian faith, it's an ancient custom. That's

why when someone is secure in the arms of the Church, we say "He sleeps with the fishes."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9323288/Prosecutors-investigate-Vatican-Bank-mafia-link.html

and valuable crosspost:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002794218

[laconicsax]

6. Ironically, the fish used to be a vulva.

[dimbear]

7. I've heard that theory, but tend to go for the acronym idea:

ichthus starts with the same letters as iesus christos etc.........

[laconicsax]

8. It's plausible that both are true. n/t

[daaron]

12. Tying in to your post below on Gotti -->

Fish can be spelled, "ghoti".

"GH" as in "enouGH"
"O" as in "wOmen"
"TI" as in "vacaTIon"

Swimmin' with the ghoti!

[dimbear]

13. There is no limit to the weird twists in this story. Good one. n/t

[dimbear]

9. Gotti Tedeschi, now deposed head of the Vatican bank,

mainly feared assassination by poison, according to his testimony. Yet when police appeared at his door to search his apartment, he told them he had expected them to shoot him. It certainly raises the issue of proper decorum when terminating an important Vatican financial official.

I say kudos to Tedeschi for leaving around an incriminating dossier labelled "If I am assassinated, blame the enclosed" which in fact contains a world of info on money laundering by the Vatican bank.

We all, as moral actors in the world, face many decisions. Perhaps to be considered as we chose our religious brand should be their style of offing unwanted higher-ups. And can we agree once and for all that more or less public hangings are uncouth?

[dimbear]

10. Gotti Tedeschi underwent an exhaustive interrogation, 5 hours, by Rome officials.

Among the questions answered: why did JP Morgan Chase close its account with the Vatican Bank?

Gotti explained they weren't satisfied with Vatican Bank's anti-money laundering mechanisms. Not clean enough for JP Morgan.
Also yesterday, the Vatican apologized for claims that Tedeschi was incompetent or ill. Possibly his very real terror is gaining him sympathy.

Seems likely to emerge as the hero of the story.

[BFreeFranklin]

11. Tedeschi, a dead man walking, all the way to London perhaps to visit Blackfriars Bridge, yeah right.

Tedeschi was at best window dressing to claim a change in management by the Two Boards of the IOR. If you look at the public records, he was little more than a no power, part time banking consultant working two days a week at the Alexander V Tower in Vatican City making "transparency" PR speeches to select groups with the press allowed to attend and quote him. A title, an empty suit.
I love the way that when the shit hit the fan, a leak or leaks were emanating from various sources, the Paranoid Cardinals picked him as a scapegoat along with a butler. Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State of the Holy See's attempt to rig the next papal election is in jeopardy if the documents you try to bribe your way into office with are scattered already all over the sidewalk in public view. LOL
Too bad he is going to be disappeared or outright eliminated with everybody having an alibi, like so many other coverups in the mafia state of the Vatican, Emanuela Orlandi, Cedric Tornay, Albino Luciani to name a few etc.