The Vatican is investigating a leaked confidential report which alleges that its department overseeing real estate and investments was used for possible money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation.
"In recent days, articles have appeared in the media referring in a partial and imprecise way to the contents of a confidential document, conjecturing that the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA) was used in the past for illicit financial activities," the Vatican said in a press statement.
"The Vatican judicial authority has opened an investigation into the distribution of that document," the statement added.
APSA is not being investigated and is continuing to cooperate with the relevant authorities, the statement said.
The 33-page report, which covers the period from 2000 to 2011, suspects an APSA division was used by an outsider for non-Vatican business, with the complicity of APSA staff in breach of its own regulations, Reuters news agency, which has seen the document, said last week.
In the report, Vatican financial investigators focus on the activities of Giampietro Nattino, chairman of a family-run private Italian bank, Banca Finnat Euroamerica, who is suspected of using APSA accounts for personal trades on the Italian stock market, Reuters said.
Nattino, who volunteered as usher in the papal palace, was the owner of an APSA portfolio containing four separate accounts from 22 May 20000 to 29 march, 2011, Reuters quoted the report as saying.
The accounts were closed days before the Vatican brought in tougher new laws against money laundering and the balance of over 2 million euros was moved to Switzerland, Reuters cited the report as saying.
The document has been passed onto Italian and Swiss investigators as some activity tied to the accounts allegedly took place in these countries, according to an unnamed senior Vatican source cited by Reuters.
While media coverage of the Vatican's murky finances has centred for decades on the scandal-plagued Vatican Bank, APSA has acted as its own financial powerhouse. It manages the Vatican's real estate holdings in Rome and elsewhere in Italy and one of its two divisions also manages the Holy See's financial and stock portfolio.
APSA made headlines in June 2013 when one of its senior accountants, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano was arrested. He is currently on trial for money-laundering and conspiracy to smuggle 20 million euros in cash into Italy from Switzerland, allegedly to help friends dodge taxes.
