Catholic Priest Charged With Money Laundering

A senior Italian cleric has been charged with
laundering millions through the Vatican bank, police
say.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is already on trial and
under house arrest on separate charges of plotting to
smuggle 20m euros ($26m; £17m) into Italy.
The former Vatican accountant and two other people
were served with arrest warrants on Tuesday, police
said. Police seized some 6.5m euros in bank accounts
and real estate, including Monsignor Scarano's luxury
apartment in the southern city of Salerno.
Authorities said the latest charges against the cleric
related to "false donations", which he allegedly
recycled from offshore accounts through the Vatican
bank.
Prosecutors allege that Monsignor Scarano got
dozens of people to make contributions to a home for
the terminally ill in Salerno, and used the money to
pay off a mortgage on one of his properties.
Monsignor Scarano worked for two decades as a
senior accountant in a Vatican department known as
Apsa (the Administration of the Patrimony of the
Apostolic See). The division manages the Vatican's
real estate holdings and stock portfolios.
The cleric was suspended from his position last year,
after he was accused of conspiring to smuggle
millions from Switzerland into Italy with the help of a
secret service agent and a financial broker.
The trio's high-profile trial began in early December
in Rome.
Officially known as the Institute for the Works of
Religion (IOR), the Vatican bank is one of the world's
most secretive. It has 114 employees and 5.4bn
euros of assets.