Saturday 25th September, 2010
http://www.bruneinews.net/story/689607
President Ettore Gotti Tedeschi on Friday told CNN that he was humiliated and baffled by the Italian government’s decision to probe the bank on money laundering allegations and that he would cooperate fully with the investigation.
The Italian prosecutor, Nello Rossi, announced earlier in the week on Tuesday that he was looking into the banks activities after it learned of two transactions that did not meet anti-laundering regulations.
Subsequently, US$30 million was sized from the bank by the Italian prosecutor as a precautionary measure. The first transaction was for US$26 million and the second for US$4 million.
The transactions reportedly did not provide enough information, which gave rise to suspicion.
Tedeschi has reaffirmed the need for the Vatican bank to get on the global ‘white list’ of banks that comply with internationally agreed standards.
Tedeschi insists the bank is committed to transparency, but his comments were contradicted by the author Jeffrey Robinson who claims that the Vatican bank is the “most secret bank in the world” and that its financial reach is unknown.
Also unknown is the exact legal authority of Italy to investigate the bank as the Vatican is recognised as a sovereign territory, the two money transfers that were halted took place on Italian soil.