Read more: See hereOver 8 months after the conclusion of the trial in the Vatican Tribunal regarding the purchase and sale of the London property, which saw the conviction of ten defendants for various crimes including fraud and corruption, the issue of the Sloane Avenue property has returned to the forefront in another judicial proceeding, this time at His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England.
The trial began on June 24 following a civil complaint filed in 2020 in England by Raffaele Mincione, the financier among the ten defendants in the Vatican trial. The Vatican Tribunal sentenced him to 5 years and 6 months imprisonment, plus an 8,000-euro fine and permanent disqualification from public office, for money laundering, embezzlement, and corruption.
The Federal Court of Appeals in Switzerland had also expressed its opinion on the matter, confirming in 2021-22 the seizure of almost 100 million euros from some defendants, including Mincione.
The Secretariat of State, however, has always contested the inflated price of the property and the special powers Mincione acquired in the various transactions beyond the contracts.
Mincione was introduced to the Vatican through Enrico Crasso, a longtime financial consultant for the Secretariat of State (also convicted in the Vatican trial), to conduct due diligence on an investment initially proposed by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, then Substitute of the Secretariat of State, for oil wells in Angola. The investment quickly fell through, partly due to a negative opinion presented by Mincione.
After more than a year, Mincione had warned the investment would be a risky operation, instead proposing the purchase of a building, formerly Harrods warehouses, in a prestigious street in the British capital.
The property was ⁘overvalued⁘ between 56 and 101 million pounds, something that caused ⁘damage⁘ to the Holy See, which owned 45% of it, as stated in the argument by the civil lawyer of the Secretariat of State, Paola Severino.
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