Word: ambrosiano
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...investigators unraveled Calvi's tangled financial affairs, they kept running across the name of Archbishop Marcinkus. The Vatican Bank has long owned 1.58% of the Banco Ambrosiano, but now there is suspicion that it actually holds much more. In addition, Marcinkus until very recently had sat on the board of the bank's Nassau-based subsidiary, Banco Ambrosiano Overseas Ltd., which helped arrange the questionable overseas loans...
...most damaging of the disclosures were documents that directly implicated Marcinkus in the loan scheme. The archbishop had signed "letters of patronage" for the dozen Panamanian ghost companies that received the loan money from the Banco Ambrosiano. The letters stated that the companies were controlled by the Vatican Bank and were apparently intended to serve as references or guarantees for the lender. Investigators are not sure at this point where the $1.4 billion went or what it was used for. It is believed that some of the money, perhaps as much as 10%, was used to buy stock in Banco...
...weeks ago, three officials appointed by the Bank of Italy to take over Banco Ambrosiano's affairs after Calvi's death visited Marcinkus at his Vatican Bank headquarters. The archbishop told them that he had only done what Calvi had requested. He then showed the officials out the door, saying that he was not required to answer questions by Italian authorities, who have no jurisdiction over the bank because it is located in Vatican City...
Even before the Banco Ambrosiano affair, though, Marcinkus had been touched by financial scandal. In 1973 Italian-American Financier Michele Sindona sold two companies to Calvi for what was considered the greatly inflated price of $100 million. According to Giorgio Ambrosoli, the court-appointed liquidator of the Sindona empire at the time, Sindona paid a $5.6 million commission as part of the deal to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker." Official Italian sources have confirmed that Ambrosoli was refer ring to Marcinkus and Calvi. It is still not clear why the two allegedly received this money...
Effects of the Italian bank scandal have quickly rippled through the Western financial community. Last week the assets of Banco Ambrosiano's Luxembourg subsidiary were frozen after two British banks called loans totaling $125 million. That, in turn, has put in jeopardy up to $400 million in loans held by some 250 banks, including Bank of America...