{"id":10540,"date":"2025-02-21T19:11:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10540"},"modified":"2025-02-21T19:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:11:20","slug":"vatican-let-down-by-financier-in-london-property-deal-high-court-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=10540","title":{"rendered":"Vatican \u2018let down\u2019 by financier in London property deal, High Court says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Vatican had reason to feel \u201cutterly let down\u201d by a financier involved in an ill-fated UK property deal on which the Roman Catholic Church lost more than \u00a3100mn, a London court has found.<\/p>\n

Raffaele Mincione had launched the action against the Holy See in an effort to clear his name following his December 2023 conviction for embezzlement and money-laundering by the Vatican Tribunal.<\/p>\n

Mincione, who is appealing against his Vatican Tribunal conviction and associated five-and-a-half year prison sentence, was a key figure in the Vatican\u2019s acquisition of a former Harrods showroom in London. The church spent more than \u20ac350mn on the property between 2014 and 2018.<\/p>\n

The scheme\u2019s backers intended to redevelop the site into luxury apartments but the project never obtained planning permission. <\/p>\n

In his civil action against the Holy See, filed in 2020 after the deal went sour, Mincione had sought several declarations from the High Court in London. They included a finding that he and his companies had acted in \u201cgood faith\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/source>\"Raffaele<\/picture>
Raffaele Mincione was a key figure in the Vatican\u2019s acquisition of a former Harrods showroom in London<\/span> \u00a9 David M. Benett\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his 50-page ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Robin Knowles granted the majority of 31 declarations sought by Mincione and rejected \u201cparticular allegations of dishonesty and particular allegations of conspiracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he added that the Vatican \u2014 an institution run by clerics and theologians lacking any financial expertise \u2014 had reason to consider itself \u201cutterly let down in its experience\u201d with the financier.<\/p>\n

For Mincione to have stated that the value of the property was \u00a3275mn was \u201cnot frank\u201d and \u201cat least without elaboration, misleading\u201d, the judge found.<\/p>\n

In a statement after Friday\u2019s ruling, the Holy See said the English court\u2019s ruling represented \u201ca significant vindication\u201d of the church\u2019s position that it had been wronged by a person in whom it had placed its faith. <\/p>\n

The businessman nevertheless claimed victory, saying the judge had found he had not been \u201cdishonest\u201d or taken part in \u201cany conspiracy or fraud\u201d as part of his dealings. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the judgment can lay to rest once and for all claims that I am dishonest, or a fraudster, or a criminal,\u201d Mincione said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Holy See realised a loss of more than \u00a3100mn in 2022 when it sold the property in Chelsea \u2014 one of London\u2019s wealthiest neighbourhoods \u2014 to private equity group Bain Capital.<\/p>\n

The significant loss led to a broad review of the way the Catholic Church handles its finances.<\/p>\n

Mincione was one of seven defendants \u2014 including one of the Vatican\u2019s most powerful former officials, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu \u2014 convicted in 2023 by the Vatican court for their roles in the contentious property deal.<\/p>\n

The unprecedented criminal conviction of a cardinal and others involved in the deal was seen as part of Pope Francis\u2019 attempt to bring greater accountability to the church and improve the management of its finances.<\/p>\n

Mincione\u2019s London lawsuit was initially filed in 2020, prior to the Vatican trial, as church authorities were carrying out their own investigation into the vexed deal and what had gone on.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis\u2019 chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Pe\u00f1a Parra, testified during the civil trial last July.<\/p>\n

This article has been revised to make clear the judge granted the majority of the 31 declarations sought by Mincione.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free The Vatican had reason to feel \u201cutterly let down\u201d by a financier involved in an ill-fated UK property deal on which the Roman Catholic Church lost more than \u00a3100mn, a London court has found. Raffaele Mincione had launched the action against the Holy See in an effort to clear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[523,1236,4271,929,2561,1405,4270],"class_list":{"0":"post-10540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-deal","10":"tag-financier","11":"tag-high","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-property","14":"tag-vatican"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}