Vatican Bank Under Investigation for Money Laundering

You have got to love it. The Nazi Pope has just ended his controversial trip to the United Kingdom and he's greeted home by Italian authorities freezing accounts in the Vatican Bank on suspicions of money laundering. Just maybe there is a God. Numerous media outlets around the globe are covering the story which involves the equivalent of $30 Million being frozen with the head of the Vatican Bank (pictured at left) likewise under investigation. The sex abuse scandal has demonstrated that the Vatican believes that the Church is above the law, so financial improprieties and possible money laundering are small potatoes compared the world wide molestation of tens of thousands of children and youths. In my view, the sooner the institutional Catholic Church dies (and denominations like the Southern Baptist Convention), the better off the Christian Gospel will be. Here are highlights from the Guardian (CNN and the Washington Post also have coverage):
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The head of the Vatican bank has formally been placed under investigation in an inquiry into a suspected violation of Italy's money-laundering laws, judicial sources said today.
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At the same time, a judge in Rome ordered a freeze on €23m (£19.5m) held in an account opened by the Vatican bank, the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), at another financial institution in the Italian capital. It was thought to be the first time such action had been authorised against the IOR in Italy.
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Of the €28m deposited, €23m was destined for transfer to JP Morgan in Frankfurt and another €3m to another Italian bank. But in neither case, it is alleged, had the Vatican's bankers supplied details of the individual or corporation for whom they were acting, as required by a 2007 legislative decree.
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The sources said the president of the IOR, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and another senior executive were under investigation. It was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between this inquiry and another in which the Vatican bank has been named, which concerns suspect property dealings.
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The Vatican has a long history of withholding co-operation from Italian investigators seeking access to its bank's books. The IOR was involved in a major scandal in 1982 arising from the fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's largest private bank.
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One possibility, of course, is that the Vatican was trying to secretly move money to deal with sex abuse claims - either to settle suits or bribe the silence of victims.