What put Raffaele Mincione – the financier born in Pomezia and moved to London in the 1980s – in contact with the Vatican
Facts, names, numbers and reconstructions
What did Raffaele Mincione put in contact – the financier born in Pomezia in 1965 and moved in London in the Eighties – with the Vatican
What does a visitor to the City have to do with – with a passion for financial and real estate shopping – and the money from the Pence of Saint Peter that the faithful donate to the Holy See for evangelization, the needs of Church and aid to the poor FROM PLAYBOY TO PIETRO CONSULTANT
In the first steps in London, Mincionehe had a reputation as a playboy. The press had covered him in the early nineties for an affair with model Heather Mills . A few years later, during the Russian financial crisis, he buys Gazprom bonds at a good price, later regaining several million. He caught the attention of the British tabloids after purchasing a spacious period house in Knightsbridge in London. The asking price was initially set at 40 million pounds. I managed to get it to him for 18. He definitely has a flair. THE DEAL IN LONDON TO BE OFFERED TO THE VATICAN
What will lead him to entertain relations with the Vatican is still a real estate deal. He starts in 2012 when he starts a Jersey registered company called 60SA. As the Financial Times reports, he gets a 75 million loan from Deutsche Bank and buys a building at 60 Sloane Avenue for 129 million pounds. Elegant brick facade, the building was built by Harrods and then mainly used for offices and shops on the ground floor. Imagine, Mincione , that turning it into a luxury apartment building would be a big deal. The opportunity could come with a collaboration with the Vatican itself. At the time, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was Secretary of State. According to various reconstructions, it was he who introduced it. BECCIU, OIL AND BRICK
The opportunity presents itself because the First Section of the Secretariat, led by Deputy Angelo Becciu , intends to invest 200 million dollars in an Angolan company, Falcon Oil, which has 5% of the rights to build a platform offshore oil with Eni and Sonangol. Becciu knows Angola well, where he was apostolic nuncio. Thus comes the contact, in the London offices of Credit Suisse between Vatican officials and the financier Mincione. The Swiss bank has been managing the treasury of the Secretariat of State for some time: funds made up mostly of money from the Pence of St. Peter. These are extra-budgetary millionaire funds. Currently, Espresso notes, cards in hand, something around 650 million euros.
In the end, the project in Africa fails. Because THE TRUST GRANTED TO FINANCER Mincione is perplexed, finds the operation “too exposed to the price of oil”. Corriere della Sera states that even Monsignor Angelo Perlasca did not like it. Perlasca was from 2009 until a few weeks ago in charge of the administrative office in Terza Loggia. But Mincionehas a reserve card. Exactly: he proposes that building he owns in the Chelsea district of London that has just been purchased. The Vatican approves. AD HOC FUNDS
An ad hoc fund is created. The financier’s only partner, the Secretariat of State, which buys 45% of the property. To complete everything, however, we have to wait until 2014. The FT writes: one month before the Vatican agreement, the accounts show that the value of the building has increased to 137.66 million pounds. The Vatican would not have directly owned the shares of the property, but only through its investment in the Athena Global Opportunities fund managed by the Wrm of Mincione , which in turn holds the majority. The Secretariat of State was the only investor in the Athena fund.THE MINCIONE PLAN
The plan of the financier is to expand two floors, convert the licenses from office to residential and build about fifty apartments, to resell for 600-700 million. However, the licenses do not arrive until the end of 2016. And Brexit intervenes: sterling and the real estate market collapse. BUT THE VATICAN EARN Mincione collects 2% in commissions. He reveals it himself to Corriere della Sera: 16 million in all. Furthermore: of the 147 million euros invested by the Vatican, 80 ended up in the building, about 65 in the other fund. These are money that Mincione uses to finance some projects. The Athena fund appears in the forays into Carige, Retelit (communications) and Tas (digital payments). In the Vatican they knew
“Everything”, Mincione replies to the Corsera. And everything is transparent and legitimate. THE PAWL OF BREXIT
Since 2016, prices of major properties in London have fallen by 10.4 percent, according to data provider LonRes reported by Ft. Meanwhile, the Vatican Substitute changed in 2018. Becciu is succeeded by the Venezuelan Edgar Pena Parra . The deal does not pay off as expected. Beyond the Leonine Walls there is concern about the risks associated with other financial investments. It is decided to buy the whole property and leave Athena. Initially, an attempt would be made to work alongside Mincione with another trusted Vatican financier, Enrico Crasso, to supervise the fund’s investments. Between Mincione and Crasso – Il Messaggero writes – relations are not good and the last one is then asked to step aside. EXPENSIVE EXIT OPERATIONS
But above all and at this stage that the Italian financier based in London Gianluigi Torzi would enter the field . According to the Espresso reconstruction, Torziit would have made the Luxembourg vehicle Gutt available to the Secretariat of State. For this brokerage work, according to Milano Finanza, Torzi would have received a commission of 10 million which, according to rumors, would still be in an account. According to reports from other sources to Mf, the 10 million would instead be the result of the penalty paid to Torzi to terminate in advance the five-year property management contract stipulated in 2018 between the Vatican and Gutt di Torzi himself. THE VATICAN SECRETARIAT HAS A BUILDING IN CHELSEA WITH A BOOMERANG EFFECT
Be that as it may: the Secretariat of State manages to take possession of the entire property. To do so, he takes out a loan of 130 million with two Luxembourg companies. According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the conditions are onerous: there is even talk of a 5% plus libor. Meanwhile, Mincione is holding financial investments. To get out of Athena, the Vatican recognizes him an adjustment of 44 million. THE IOR “CLOSES” THE DOOR IN FRONT OF THE THIRD LOGGIA
To close the loan, the Secretariat of State asks the IOR 150 million. The Vatican bank has no intention of giving them. The request makes the IOR director, Mammi, suspicious, who in fact denounced the operation last July. The Vatican Auditor’s Office also addresses the Vatican judiciary. INVESTIGATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS OF CRIME
The investigations that led to the unprecedented searches in the Secretariat of State and in the offices of the Vatican Anti-Money Laundering are launched on October 1st. According to the papers found on the desks of the Espresso editorial office, the promoters Gian Piero Milano and Alessandro Diddi believe they have identified “serious indications of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, money laundering and self-laundering”. In another report obtained by Emiliano Fittipaldi, the auditor Alessandro Cassinis hypothesizes “very serious crimes such as embezzlement, corruption and aiding and abetting”. If on trial, five top personalities of the Secretariat and AIF will have to answer (four lay people and a monsignor, currently suspended from service). Among those names, also that of the director of the anti-money laundering authority. According to the documents, he would have entertained a correspondence in which it would seem to give the green light to the purchase operation and to the fees in favor of Torzi. But, reports L’Espresso, other sources would show how the AIF, once warned by the current Substitute, Pena Parra, would have immediately moved to block the operation. A tangle.
In fact, at the moment, not exactly a nice postcard for the worldwide credibility of the Holy See in the field of financial transparency. While there is a risk of huge economic losses. MINCIONE GAINS, THE VATICAN
According to Mincionethe Vatican has earned it. With oil in Angola he would not have taken a euro. With Athena and London, however, things would not have gone completely wrong: “They put in 147 million in 2014 and now they have given us 44 million. There’s a 130 million mortgage. The whole building therefore cost 320 million euros, or 287 pounds. With full-price rents, the building is worth 390 million euros: 390 minus 320 is 70. That is, they invested 147 million and four years later they have 70 million more ”. He still defends the operation: “In terms of assets there is no hole: if you restructure, you double the value; rents at full price, yields 4%, 14 million pounds ”. But the license to build expires at the end of the year. And who feels beyond the walls to open a building site now, with all the hype about the operation
With what, more money
The alleged Vatican gain would therefore only be on paper. Earning for now is the Italian financier based in London. According to the calculations of the Financial Times, something like 138 million pounds.
Il Messaggero emphasizes: if the IOR continues not to advance the 150 million required to pay off the loan, the property will pass to the Luxembourg credit institutions and the Vatican would lose the money from the Saint Peter’s Pence. And that would be millions. THE NODE OF INVESTMENTS OF THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE
It is not surprising that the Secretariat of State has its own assets and works to invest it. There is nothing extraordinary, comment Vatican economics experts: otherwise the money does not pay for the activities of the Church in the missions and in favor of the poor. The point is how that money is invested. Nor is it extraordinary and new that those who smell money and finances should have every interest in doing business with the Holy See. Rather: who behind the Walls has the task of discerning in the economic sphere has the appropriate skills
From what moved in the assessments TOUCH THE EXTRA-BALANCE SHEET FUNDS AND …
A few years ago the Australian Cardinal George PellI find an extra-budgetary treasure of over one billion euros. They were not black funds, but money deposited in the various departments of the Curia that escaped the control of the finance ranger called by Francis. Pell was then overwhelmed by a scandal; I leave to go and defend myself. He is currently in prison for pedophilia in his country. In 2017 Libero Milone , Auditor General, suddenly resigned. He later explained that they had been imposed on him, under penalty of arrest. On what Becciu was investigating I reply that Milone was “spying on the private lives of his superiors”. The fact is that the Vatican has never investigated Milone. But he was discharged. Why GENOA FOR US
Beyond the internal Vatican inquiries and journalistic reconstructions, the question remains: when, how and why the financier Mincione entered into a relationship with the Secretariat of State
AND a financier with important entries in Italy. With ancient relations with the then unknown in politics Giuseppe Conte ; for various connections with Carige and the jurist Guido Alpa , Conte’s teacher. Mincione would have crossed the bridge to do business in the Vatican – it is said – thanks to Bertone , when the cardinal was still secretary of state. THAT TIME WHICH BERTONE AIMED AT CARIGE
And if the fame of Mincionebesides the strictly financial news and linked, in fact, to the Carige climb, Bertone – who was archbishop of Genoa – seems to have looked at Carige with interest. Just a curiosity. In 2010, the IOR had 160 million euros of bank bonds. The Vatican was thinking of transforming them into shares and becoming partners of Carige. The operation, however, went up in smoke. Not to convert the bonds was advised against by the then president Ior Ettore Gotti Tedeschi , who explained his perplexities in a letter addressed to the cardinal himself.
