Word: ambrosiano
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Noting the pending investigations, Marcinkus has declined to discuss the Ambrosiano affair in detail. After contacts with top Vatican officials and conversations with Marcinkus, TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn reports that the Vatican claims its relationship with Calvi and Banco Ambrosiano involved only normal banking operations. As for Marcinkus, he is still at his Vatican bank post, expressing confidence that the storm will pass. Says he: "The old archbishop is tranquil. His conscience is clear...
Calvi began spinning his web in 1971, shortly after he became director-general of Banco Ambrosiano. An employee of the bank for 24 years, Calvi was determined to transform it into a major international financial institution from a relatively small regional bank with strong religious overtones (until ten years ago, would-be shareholders had to present baptismal certificates to prove their Catholicism). One of his initial steps was to form a Luxembourg holding company, Compendium, which later became Banco Ambrosiano Holding. The advantage of a foreign subsidiary: it is not subject to Italy's banking regulations. Calvi...
...introduced Calvi to Marcinkus. Sindona and Calvi hoped to use Marcinkus for their own purposes, and the bankers and the churchman obviously found it advantageous to do business together. Although the Vatican bank denies it had much to do with either Sindona or Calvi, the I.O.R. eventually became Banco Ambrosiano's fourth-largest stockholder, acquiring over the years at least 794,390 shares, or 1.589% of the bank's stock. A few months after Sindona and Calvi set up the Bahamian bank in 1971, a "Mr. Paul Marcinkus" was listed as a director. "We used his name...
...have obtained in return remains to be learned. But according to Sindona, the Vatican bank initially received 2.5% of the Bahamian bank's stock. Vatican officials told TIME that the stake in the Bahamian bank eventually rose to 8% and that the church's interest in Banco Ambrosiano Holding in Luxembourg...
...I.O.R., according to Sindona, regularly moved funds out of the country for Banco Ambrosiano, which was restricted from acting on its own by Italian law. Sindona also asserts that in return for such favors, Calvi's banks paid the I.O.R. an interest rate on its deposits that was one percentage point higher than the rate other customers received. Vatican officials flatly deny that the I.O.R. ever helped transfer funds abroad for Italians...