God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
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32 Willan, The Last Supper, 177-78, citing in part Pazienza’s autobiography, Il Disubbidient (Milan: Longanesi, 1990).
33 See generally Roy Larson, “In the 1980’s, a Chicago Newspaper Investigated Cardinal Cody,” Niemen Reports, The Niemen Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, spring 2003; John Conroy, “Cardinal Sins,” Chicago Reader, June 4, 1987.
34 See generally about Vienna’s Cardinal König aware of the KGB’s Department D; Thomas and Morgan-Witts, Pontiff, 265–66.
35 Author interview with Francesco Pazienza, September 22, 2013.
36 Willey, God’s Politicians, 234.
37 The letter is undated except that on page 1 it has a time stamp “March 23, 1979.” It was passed to Marcinkus on March 26, 1979, by P. Peter Sarros, a Deputy Presidential Envoy to the Vatican. See Letter from P. Peter Sarros, Deputy Presidential Envoy, to Bishop Marcinkus, March 26, 1979, with handwritten notation in the upper-right-hand corner of the one-page cover note “Rcd 26-3-79 BM.” The Sarros letter included a three-page attached telex. That attachment is the same as the contents of the letter from Benjamin R. Civiletti, Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice, to Bishop Paul C. Marcinkus, President, Institute of Religious Works, date-stamped March 23, 1979, William A. Wilson Papers, Box 2, Folder 66, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Washington, D.C.
38 The accounts were opened in 1974 by Howard Mitnick, through a power of attorney of Ellis Shore, chairman of ATS. One account with $3.6 million was held in the name of RAE Advertising, a wholly owned ATS subsidiary, while the other, with $4.1 million, was in the name of another ATS subsidiary, Analysis and Research Associates. Letter from Benjamin R. Civiletti, Deputy Attorney General, Department of Justice, to Bishop Paul C. Marcinkus, President, Institute of Religious Works, date-stamped March 23, 1979, William A. Wilson Papers, William A. Wilson Papers: Box 2, Folder 66, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Washington, D.C.
39 Marcinkus incorrectly told Civiletti that the IOR was “an organization established by Pope Leo XIII to husband monies destined for religious works of the Church, all over the world.” Leo XIII had began what was a generic predecessor organization, the Administration of Religious Works, but the IOR to which Marcinkus referred was started by Bernardino Nogara and Pope Pius XII in June 1942. See Letter from Paul C. Marcinkus to Benjamin R. Civiletti, April 3, 1979, William A. Wilson Papers, Box 2, Folder 66, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Washington, D.C.
40 Letter from Paul C. Marcinkus to Benjamin R. Civiletti, April 3, 1979, William A. Wilson Papers, Box 2, Folder 66, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Washington, D.C., 2.
41 The Vatican refused to allow the author to have access to any of the records of the IOR.
42 Letter from Paul C. Marcinkus to Benjamin R. Civiletti, April 24, 1979, William A. Wilson Papers, Box 2, Folder 66, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Washington, D.C.
43 Ibid.
44 Author interview with William Aronwald, February 16, 2007.
Chapter 22: “The Vatican Has Abandoned Me”
1 Galli, Finanza bianca, 83–84.
2 In discussing how the Bank of Italy uncovered that foreign corporations of unknown ownership, based primarily in Panama and Liechtenstein, had purchased large blocks of the Ambrosiano, the report concluded, “It cannot be excluded that the above mentioned purchasers could be part of the ‘Ambrosiano group,’ given the wide and uncontrollable possibilities for maneuver by banks and foreign financial affiliates, or of IOR.”
3 This report was the culmination of the investigation that began in April 1978 when Bank of Italy inspectors had shown up unannounced at the Ambrosiano’s headquarters. It was a probe kicked off by tips provided to the inspectors by Sindona. Neither Padalino, the chief inspector, nor anyone on his team was a P2 member. So when Calvi asked Licio Gelli for help, the P2 chief was of no assistance. See Cornwell, God’s Banker, 91; Tosches, Power on Earth, 191.
4 Since the IOR was the central bank of a sovereign nation, the Bank of Italy had no jurisdiction over it. Instead, its investigation started and stopped with the Ambrosiano. Almost all questions about the Vatican’s role were left unanswered. See Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 41–43.
5 Sergio Bocconi, “Quelle missioni da Berlinguer e Craxi per i crediti del vecchio Ambrosiano,” Corriere della Sera, October 26, 2007, 35.
6 Padalino Report excerpt quoted in Cornwell, God’s Banker, 91.
7 Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 41.
8 It is part of the Italian armed forces and is a policing authority under the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
9 See Cornwell, God’s Banker, 96.
10 L’Espresso cited in Cornwell, God’s Banker, 96; Raw, The Moneychangers, 272.
11 Henry Tanner, “Italian Prime Minister Defends Government’s Record as Terrorism Rises: Communists Withdrew Support,” The New York Times, January 30, 1979, A2.
12 “Parliament Is Cool to Andreotti Plea,” The Boston Globe, January 30, 1979, 4; Henry Tanner, “Andreotti Resigns, Bringing Fears of Rise in Italian Terrorist Activity: Murder Is Linked to Politics,” The New York Times, February 1, 1979, A3; Raw, The Moneychangers, 255.
The fact that Calvi was not involved in Alessandrini’s death has not stopped some writers from reporting it as if it were somehow connected to a larger conspiracy: “Alessandrini could not be bought,” wrote David Yallop in In God’s Name. The investigating magistrate posed “a very serious threat . . . for Calvi, Marcinkus, Gelli and Sindona. . . . Something had to be done.”
13 Tanner, “Andreotti Resigns, Bringing Fears of Rise in Italian Terrorist Activity: Murder Is Linked to Politics.”
14 Raw, The Moneychangers, 255.
15 Ibid., 138, 272.
16 Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 56.
17 Calvi ultimately completed the transfer of all his Latin American operations to Banco Ambrosiano Andino only four months after the Sandinistas defeated Somoza’s army. See Raw, The Moneychangers, 265.
18 Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 56, 58.
19 Marcinkus later claimed in a written submission to an Italian government investigating committee about the Ambrosiano that the transfer of the loans from United Trading to Andino had been “ordered and executed without the knowledge of the IOR.” But the government investigators doubted that was true. Calvi had sent letters to Marcinkus on December 17, 1979, stating that the obligations of the IOR had been extended to Andino. Marcinkus later contended that letter was not sufficient notice to the Vatican Bank, but never to the complete satisfaction of the government probe. The Joint Investigating Committee submission by Marcinkus, cited in Raw, The Moneychangers, 266–67.
20 Raw, The Moneychangers, 263.
21 Sindona quoted in Lernoux, In Banks We Trust, 209.
22 Raw, The Moneychangers, 282, 284, 323.
23 Ibid., 214–16, 227–28, 261–62, 306–9.
24 Arnold H. Lubasch, “A Nixon Treasury Secretary Queried on $200,000 He Got from Sindona,” The New York Times, January 23, 1979, B7. Kennedy eventually testified before the grand jury without a grant of immunity. There were questions as to whether Kennedy had broken the law by taking and not disclosing the short-term $200,000 loan from Sindona in 1974. Kennedy said he had used the money for a land development in Arizona, to which Sindona had no connection. Prosecutors also asked Kennedy about his service as a director at Sindona’s Fasco holding company. No charges were filed against Kennedy. As for the Kennedy-Marcinkus friendship, see Simoni and Turone, Il caffè di Sindona, 34, 37. Also, Marcinkus talked to author John Cornwell about some “friends” in Chicago that introduced him to “people at Continental Bank.” Kennedy became the chairman of that bank the same year Pope Paul VI appointed Marcinkus as the chief prelate of the IOR. The two men were good friends. See Marcinkus interviewed in Cornwell, A Thief in the Night, 83; also Robert D. Hershey, Jr., “David Kennedy, Ex-Treasury Chief
, Dies at 90,” The New York Times, May 3, 1996.
25 Arnold H. Lubasch, “3 Former Officials of Franklin Bank Convicted of Fraud,” The New York Times, January 24, 1979, A1. Harold Gleason had been the chairman, Paul Luftig the president, and J. Michael Carter the senior vice president.
26 Paul Serafini, Associated Press, Business News, New York, A.M. cycle, March 19, 1979; DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker, 237.
27 “U.S. Indicts Sindona on Bank Role: U.S. Accuses Sindona of Fund Misappropriation,” The New York Times, March 20, 1979, D1. The banks cited in the indictment were Banca Unione and Banca Finanziaria, which failed in 1974 but were merged into Sindona’s new Banca Privata Italiana. See also “Gunshots and Persons Unknown,” The Economist, October 6, 1979, 114; Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Case of Sindona and Responsibilities and the Political and Administrative Connected To It, 63–77.
28 Robert Fiske Jr. quoted in “U.S. Indicts Sindona on Bank Role: U.S. Accuses Sindona of Fund Misappropriation,” The New York Times. Robert Fiske, the U.S. Attorney, told the press within hours of filing the indictment that the case would not stop the extradition proceedings against Sindona. If the government prevailed in its effort to send him back to Italy, that deportation would be stayed pending an outcome on the American criminal charges.
29 Paul Serafini, Associated Press, Business News, New York, A.M. cycle, March 19, 1979. Eight days after the indictment, Thomas C. Platt Jr., the federal judge who had overseen each of the Franklin trials and was familiar with the facts of the different cases, disqualified himself from Sindona’s case as the result of an uproar by defense lawyers over a joke he made in open court. The joke had actually been made the previous Halloween, but Sindona’s attorneys did not use it as the basis for a recusal until their client was formally indicted. It was not possible to tell precisely what the joke was since Judge Platt sealed the transcript that contained it, but leaks from defense counsel indicated that it referred to the defenses by key Franklin executives as a “fairy tale.” One of the most distinguished justices in the New York district courts, Jack B. Weinstein, took over the Sindona trial. See Robert J. Cole, “Judge Out in Sindona Bank Suit,” The New York Times, March 29, 1979, D1.
30 Marcinkus interviewed in Cromwell, A Thief in the Night, 132.
31 Robert Suro, “Sindona Gets Life Term in Murder Case in Italy,” The New York Times, March 19, 1986, D17.
32 Luigi DiFonzo, “Justifiable Homicide,” New York, April 11, 1983, 31–32.
33 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the Case of Sindona and Responsibilities and the Political and Administrative Connected To It, 37–40, 44.
34 Raw, The Moneychangers, 86. Ambrosoli demonstrated that Sindona did not use any of his own money to buy Franklin, but instead improperly used the proceeds of the Zitropo/Pachetti deal.
35 “Gunshots and Persons Unknown,” The Economist, 114.
36 Ambrosoli Report cited in Raw, The Moneychangers, 87. See also Galli, Finanza bianca, 84; and Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 45.
37 Alexander L. Taylor III, “Scandal at the Pope’s Bank; Outside Experts Are Called in to Investigate Some Shady Financial Dealings,” Time, July 26, 1982, 34; “Official Italian sources later confirmed that Ambrosoli was referring to Marcinkus and Calvi.” Lernoux, In Banks We Trust, 187. Jennifer Parmelee, Untitled, Associated Press, International News, Rome, BC cycle, May 18, 1986. Sindona told Newsweek in 1982 that he had paid half that amount to Calvi’s wife, but not any money to Marcinkus. It is doubtful Sindona told the truth. He was in prison in the U.S. at the time awaiting extradition to Italy. Sindona also denied to Newsweek that he had anything to do with the death of an Italian prosecuting magistrate, a case in which he was eventually convicted of ordering the murder. Harry Anderson with Rich Thomas in London and Rome and Hope Lamfert in New York, “Inside the Vatican Bank,” Newsweek, September 13, 1982, 62.
38 Giacomo Vitale, the brother-in-law of Mafia don Stefano Bontade, was later identified as the caller; see judicial hearings, Palermo, December 18, 1997, and February 24, 1998, on the basis of the declarations made by collaborators of justice Angelo Tullio Siino and Cinnamon (Palermo Court, judgment of 23 October 1999 Andreotti, ch. VI, § 1, p. 1845ss).
39 Tosches, Power on Earth, 192.
40 Andrew Gumbel, “Obscure Magistrate Began Downfall of a Corrupt Generation,” The Independent (London), March 23, 1995, p. 11; see Raw, The Moneychangers, 258; and Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 45.
41 Sindona’s U.S. trial was scheduled to start in September 1979 and the U.S. Attorney’s Office hoped that Ambrosoli might have uncovered additional information to assist them. Raw, The Moneychangers, 258.
42 “Gunshots and Persons Unknown,” 114.
43 Henry Tanner, “A Sindona Inquiry by Italian Parliament Gets Support,” The New York Times, August 10, 1979, B3.
44 Joseph P. Fried, “U.S. Bids to Send Sindona to Italy,” The New York Times, December 18, 1983, 49.
45 Tosches, Power on Earth, 196; DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker, 240.
46 Luigi DiFonzo, “Justifiable Homicide,” 30; see Raw, The Moneychangers, 87.
47 Ibid., Di Fonzo, St. Peter’s Banker; Raw, The Moneychangers, 259.
48 See generally Claire Sterling, The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism (New York: Henry Holt, 1981).
49 Tanner, “A Sindona Inquiry by Italian Parliament Gets Support,” B3.
50 Ibid.; DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker, 241.
51 Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 44, 46.
52 “Execution Deadline for Sindona Passes,” The Boston Globe, August 12, 1979, 18; “Indicted Italian Financier Reported Kidnapped in US,” The Boston Globe, August 7, 1979, 11.
53 Arnold H. Lubasch, “Sindona Missing; Suspect in Fraud at Franklin Bank,” The New York Times, August 7, 1979, A1; “Disappearance of Italian Financier Indicted in Fraud Is Still a Mystery,” The New York Times, August 8, 1979, B3; “A Letter from Missing Financier Reported by Lawyer,” The New York Times, August 16, 1979, B3.
54 Arnold H. Lubasch, “Family Awaits News of Fate of Sindona,” The New York Times, August 12, 1979, 35.
55 “Death Threat for Sindona,” The Boston Globe, August 11, 1979, 11.
56 Arnold H. Lubasch, “Caller Asserts Missing Sindona Is to Be Shot ‘at Dawn,’ ” The New York Times, August 11, 1979, 1; “Family Awaits News of Fate of Sindona,” The New York Times, August 12, 1979, 35; “Death Threat for Sindona,” 11.
57 Lubasch, “A Letter from Missing Financier Reported by Lawyer,” B3; Arnold H. Lubasch, “A Letter in Sindona’s Handwriting Says Captors Do Not Seek Ransom,” The New York Times, August 22, 1979, A21.
58 “Message Reported in Sindona Case,” The New York Times, September 1, 1979, 23.
59 “Key Sindona Witness Gets Protection,” The Boston Globe, August 10, 1979, 10; “The City: Public Aid Sought in Finding Sindona,” The New York Times, August 15, 1979, B4.
60 “The City: Search for Financier,” The New York Times, August 9, 1979, B3. In Italy, Sindona’s disappearance dominated the headlines and caused an uproar in Parliament. Italian lawmakers—many of whom were suspicious that Sindona had merely fled to avoid the start of his criminal trial in New York—responded by establishing a new parliamentary committee with greater powers to investigate possible links between Sindona and leading government ministers and Christian Democrats. Tanner, “A Sindona Inquiry by Italian Parliament Gets Support,” B3.
61 “Banker Sindona’s Family Asks Help,” The Boston Globe, August 22, 1979, 16.
62 Nicholas Gage, “Sindona Photo Received; Kidnap Report Bolstered,” The New York Times, September 24, 1979, B1.
63 Ibid.; see also Paul Hoffman, “Sindona Lawyer Receives a Photo,” The New York Times, September 15, 1979, 22; “Photo of Sindona Reported,” The Boston Globe, September 15, 1979, 19.
64 DiFonzi, St. Peter’s Banker, 249.
65 “2 Suspects Arrested in Sicily,” The New York Times, October 18, 1979, A19; Tosches, Power o
n Earth, 199.
66 DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker, 256–57.
67 Ibid., 215–16, 221–22.
68 Joseph B. Treaster, “Sindona Enters a Hospital Here with a Wound,” The New York Times, October 17, 1979, A1.
69 “Sindona Account Blames ‘Leftists,’ ” The Boston Globe, October 21, 1979, 83; Selwyn Raab, “Sindona Gives Account of 10-Week Disappearance,” The New York Times, October 21, 1979, 1.
70 Joseph B. Treaster, “Sindona in U.S. Court, Recounts Abduction Ordeal,” The New York Times, October 25, 1979, A1.
71 DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker, 256–57.
72 Joseph B. Treaster, “Judge Orders Silence on the Sindona Case,” The New York Times, October 20, 1979, A1.
73 Paul Serafini, “How Federal Agents Discovered Sindona Was Not Kidnapped,” Associated Press, New York, A.M. cycle, April 3, 1980.
74 Raab, “Sindona Gives Account of 10-Week Disappearance”; see also Joseph B. Treaster, “Italian Suspect Said to Have Been in City at Time Sindona Vanished,” The New York Times, October 22, 1978, B3.
75 Serafini, “How Federal Agents Discovered Sindona Was Not Kidnapped”; Gurwin, The Calvi Affair, 45, 64–65.
76 Raw, The Moneychangers, 261.
77 Marjorie Hyer, “U.S. Catholic Budget Set,” The Washington Post, November 16, 1979, C1; Theodora Luriealso, “$20 Million in Debt, Says the Vatican in Its First-Ever Public Disclosure,” The Globe and Mail (Canada), November 10, 1979; correspondent Leslie Childe for The Telegraph, cited in Raw, The Moneychangers, 274.