British Justice confirms the scam against the Vatican in the opaque purchase of the London property

The Judicial Resolution of the High Court of England and Wales published on February 21 confirmed that the Secretary of State of the Vatican was deceived by the Italian financial Raffee Monscione in the irregular purchase of the London building.

In December 2023, for this operation that ended in fraud, Monsciona was sentenced in the first instance for the justice of the Vatican to five years and six months in prison for financial crimes related to the case.

In addition, the confiscation of 200.5 million euros was imposed, one of the most important economic sanctions imposed in the Vatican judicial field.

In that trial, Cardinal Angelo Becciu was also sentenced to five and a half years in prison for embezzlement of public funds.

According to the sentence, Becciu managed the opaque acquisition of the property located in Sloane Avenue when he was a substitute for the State Secretariat, from 2011 to 2018.

To do this, he used a third of the reserved funds of the Secretary of State: that is, 200 million US dollars that were paid between 2013 and 2014, at the request of Becciu.

This amount was destined to the purchase of shares through a fund that was managed by the Italian intermediary Raffaele Mencione, also condemned next to Becciu in the first instance by the Vatican Court for money laundering, embezzlement and corruption.

After that sentence, Monsciona filed a lawsuit against the Vatican Secretary of State in British Justice whose resolution has been published this Friday.

The objective of the Italian Financial was to obtain a series of legal statements in its favor with respect to its management in the sale of the Sloane Avenue building.

Mining argued that his performance in the transaction had been transparent and according to the standards of good faith. However, British justice has dismissed its allegations, confirming that the Vatican had reasons to be considered a victim of a harmful financial scheme.

According to the ruling of Judge Robin Knowles, 50 pages, Mining and his companies hid key information and presented deceptive data on the value of the London property, which generated significant damage to the Vatican.

The court determined that Menciona filed statements “out of reality”, inflating the property price and taking advantage of the lack of Vatican’s experience in this type of investment.

Much of the extensive compendium of the sentence focuses on the reconstruction of the irregular operation. British justice makes it clear that the Secretariat of State of the Vatican was deceived, which coincides with the primary thesis of the Vatican Court, which had previously condemned Mining for money laundering, embezzlement and corruption.

In any case, it is a first degree resolution and Mission has the possibility of resorting to the decision.

For the Vatican, this ruling “has important implications not only for Monscution, but also for future cases that involve financial operations of the Holy See”, as read in an article published on the official website of the Vatican Vatican News.

According to the Vatican editorialist, Andrea Tornielli, the ruling “establishes an important precedent by recognizing that the Vatican was the victim of a financial fraud in one of his most important real estate investments”

In addition, he confirms that according to the Vatican “the lack of transparency and ethics with which they operated Mining and their environment could influence other ongoing judicial processes.”

The judgment reinforces, says Tornielli, “the conclusions of the Vatican Court, which had already sentenced Monscution for crimes related to fraudulent investments of funds from the Holy See.”

In addition, Tornielli’s article includes the statements of the Vatican Justice promoter, Alessandro Diddi, by expressing his satisfaction with the ruling of British justice against the Italian financier Raffaele Menciona

“The British judges have shared the vision of the Vatican court and have confirmed that Raffaele Menciona did not act with the good faith demanded in this type of transactions. With this judgment, it is clear that Vatican justice acted correctly in its evaluation of the case. ”