Pope Leon XIV is already experiencing explosive accusations regarding the illegal manipulation of international banking transfers, a blow to the Vatican image, affected by years by financial scandals, according to Mediafax.
Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican. Photo shutterstock
Libero Milone, former auditor of the Vatican and ex-parter Deloitte, argues that the administration of the Apostolic Chair Heritage (APSA)-the institution responsible for the management of salaries, properties and investments of the Vatican, could “Change the names and accounts in transactions” From the SWIFT system, after they were performed, masking the identity of the shipments and beneficiaries.
“I have a paper that they say they can change the transactions, they can change the name, at any time.”Milone told Politico.
The Vatican could be excluded from the International Banking System
Banks and other financial institutions use SWIFT Rețeau to send secure messages on payments, transfers and other international transactions. The money does not actually move, but the standardized instructions are transmitted for banks to process payments.
The Catholic publication The Pillar, the one who revealed the case, called this instrument “Universal key for money laundering“, Warning that, if the accusations are confirmed, the Vatican could be excluded from the international banking system, remaining cash dependent.
Libero Milone, a general auditor of the Vatican, states that the evidence includes documents about millions of euros and suspicious financial practices, discovered in his mandate as auditor.
The Vatican says the accusations are “completely unfounded”
Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni denies the accusations, stating that they are “Completely unfounded“, Invoking financial checks carried out between 2020 and 2024, by the Vatican's Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, the Vatican's internal body, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the four largest international audit and consulting companies, which “They found no anomaly.”
Libero Milone claims that in informing Pope Francis, Secretary of Pietro Parolin and other high -ranking officials in 2016, but did not receive a response from the bodies who had the obligation to investigate.
Milone says he was forced to resign in 2017 after discovering financial irregularities related to Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, convicted in 2023 for misappropriation.
Numerous financial scandals at the Vatican
The new accusations bring to attention the history of the Vatican financial scandals, since the moral involvement recognized in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, led by the “banker of God” Roberto Calvi, to the failed real estate transactions that cost hundreds of millions of euros, according to Mediafax.
