TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?
I walk around a little edgy already
A cardinal is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in Vatican trial
DECEMBER 16, 202311:55 AM ETBy
The Associated Press
Cardinal Angelo Becciu attends a consistory inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on Aug. 27, 2022.
Andrew Medichini/AP
VATICAN CITY — A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state's dirty laundry and tested its justice system.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges and nine other defendants received a combination of guilty verdicts and acquittals among the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a 2 ½ year trial.
Becciu's lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said he respected the sentence but would appeal.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said the outcome "showed we were correct."
The trial focused on the Vatican secretariat of state's 350 million euro investment in developing a former Harrod's warehouse into luxury apartments. Prosecutors alleged Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros to cede control of the building.
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Becciu, the first-ever cardinal to be prosecuted in the Vatican's criminal court, was accused of embezzlement-related charges in two tangents of the London deal and faced up to seven years in prison.In the end, he was convicted of embezzlement stemming from the original investment of 200 million euros in a fund that bought into the London property, as well as for his 125,000 euro donation of Vatican money to a charity run by his brother in Sardinia. He was also convicted of using Vatican money to pay an intelligence analyst who in turn was convicted of using the money for herself.
The trial had raised questions about the rule of law in the city state and Francis' power as absolute monarch, given that he wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial authority and had exercised it in ways the defense says jeopardized a fair trial.
The defense attorneys did praise Judge Giuseppe Pignatone's even-handedness and said they were able to present their arguments amply. But they lamented the Vatican's outdated procedural norms gave prosecutors enormous leeway to withhold evidence and otherwise pursue their investigation nearly unimpeded.
Prosecutors had sought prison terms from three to 13 years and damages of over 400 million euros to try to recover the estimated 200 million euros they say the Holy See lost in the bad deals.
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In the end, the tribunal acquitted many of the suspects of many of the charges but ordered the confiscation of 166 million euros from them and payment of civil damages to Vatican offices of 200 million euros. One defendant, Becciu's former secretary Monsignor Mauro Carlino, was acquitted entirely.The trial was initially seen as a sign of Francis' financial reforms and willingness to crack down on alleged financial misdeeds in the Vatican. But it had something of a reputational boomerang for the Holy See, with revelations of vendettas, espionage and even ransom payments to Islamic militants.
The secretariat of state, for example, sought damages to fund a marketing campaign to try to repair the reputational harm it says it incurred. Even the Vatican communications department said the trial itself had been a "stress test" for the legal system.
Holy Gangstas stackin paper
