Italy police arrest Vatican official in financial fraud case
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Rome - A high-ranking Vatican official and two others have been arrested on suspicion of financial fraud at the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), the Holy See's scandal-tainted bank, Italian authorities said Friday.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano - who had wrongly been identified as a bishop in earlier media reports - is accused of corruption, fraud and slander along with Giovanni Maria Zito, a former intelligence officer, and Giovanni Carinzo, a financial broker. They are all Italian.
According to prosecutors, Scarano paid Zito 400,000 euros (523,000 dollars) to transport 20 million euros in cash from Switzerland to Italy onboard a private jet. The money belonged to a family friend.
The high-ranking Vatican official had been placed under investigation two weeks ago for alleged money laundering, and was suspended from his accounting role at Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) - the Holy See's central bank.
News of the arrests came two days after Pope Francis announced that he had set up a five-member investigative panel to look into the activities of the IOR.//DPA
