Banco Ambrosiano
| Banco Ambrosiano
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Spa |
| founding | 1896 |
| resolution | 1987 |
| Seat |
Milan , Italy
|
| Branch | Banking |
Banco Ambrosiano is a former Milanese bank . After a scandal in 1982, it merged with Banca Cattolica del Veneto under the name Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano .
history
The bank was founded in Milan in 1896 by Giuseppe Tovini, a Catholic lawyer from Valcamonica and named after Bishop Ambrosius of Milan . It was intended as a counterweight to the non-church banks, among other things a nephew of Pope Pius XI. Chairman of the board of directors of the bank. In the 1960s the bank expanded and among other things opened a holding company in Luxembourg. The director was Carlo Canesi, who supported his long-time employee Roberto Calvi . He became general director in 1971 and chairman of the supervisory board in 1975. Under his direction, the bank continued to expand and opened branches in South America and the Bahamas. The bank's main shareholder in the 1970s was the Vatican Bank . The first crisis occurred in 1976, triggered by the machinations of Michele Sindona and the bankrupt Franklin National Bank .
The bank was re-established as Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano in the late 1980s . After a merger with the Banca Cattolica del Veneto , it traded for some time under the name of Banco Ambrosiano Veneto (also called "Banco Ambroveneto"). After the merger with the Milanese savings bank Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde , it merged in 1998 in the new major bank Banca Intesa .
The Banco Ambrosiano Holding , Luxembourg branch of the bank, was disbanded 23 years after their judicial liquidation in 1982, finally in March of 2005. After a notification to the Caisse des consignations in the Mémorial on January 2, 2012, the remaining balances will be transferred to the treasury after July 29, 2012.
Banco Ambrosiano scandal
The bank played an important role in the Propaganda Due (P2) conspiracy in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. During the later investigation into the irregularities at Banco Ambrosiano, it was found that its president Roberto Calvi and his assistants had established more than 200 “ghost banks” ( mailbox companies ) to cover up the transactions. A bank in the Bahamas , the Cisalpina , played a key role in this. The bank apparently served money laundering to smuggle cocaine money from Latin America into the legal financial markets with the help of the World Finance Corporation in Miami .
In addition to Calvi, the Cisalpina was administered by Archbishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus , head of the Vatican bank Istituto per le Opere di Religione , which in turn was involved in Ambrosiano. However, the illegal activity appeared to be spiraling out of control. A billion dollar financial hole developed at Ambrosiano; the bank was actually at an end. In 1972 the idea was developed to plug this hole with counterfeit securities. US $ 950 million was to be spent on the purchase, and the papers were apparently provided by the mafia.
The bank's president, Roberto Calvi , was charged in 1982 with money laundering, embezzlement, and involvement in a long list of political and financial crimes, along with Michele Sindona (President of Franklin National Bank ) and Archbishop Marcinkus.
Calvi went into hiding; he was found dead on June 18, 1982, hanging on a rope under Blackfriars Bridge in London , his pockets filled with bricks. That same day, Calvi's secretary, Graziella Corrocher , fell to her death from a window in the bank in Milan. Both cases spoke of both suicide and murder.
The bank collapsed in 1987; the Vatican put the amount of unrecoverable outstanding debts at around three billion US dollars.
Licio Gelli , founder of Lodge P2, was arrested while fleeing in Switzerland, but was able to escape from Swiss custody and return to his home country Italy after the statute of limitations on persecution. When the whole complex was cleared up, five tax investigators from the Guardia di Finanza were killed.
Movies and movie quotes
- 1990: The Godfather - Part III . - The film is based in part on the book In God's Name ( In the name of God? ) By David Yallop . The figure of Frederick Keinszig was based on Roberto Calvi; that of Archbishop Gilday to Paul Marcinkus.
- 2002: I Banchieri di Dio: Il caso Calvi (roughly: “God's Bankers: The Calvi Case”), directed by Giuseppe Ferrara, Italy.
- 2008: Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita Di Giulio Andreotti Director: Paolo Sorrentino, Italy 2008
literature
- Denis Robert, Ernest Backes: The silence of money. The Clearstream scandal. Pendo-Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-85842-546-X .
- David A Yallop: In the name of God? The mysterious death of the 33-day Pope John Paul I. Facts and background. 2005, ISBN 3-499-61175-9 .
Web links
- The murder of God's banker goes unpunished. In: Spiegel online. June 7, 2007.
Individual evidence
- ^ Aumône au Trésor. In: D'Lëtzebuerger Land . January 6, 2012, p. 11.
- ↑ Dagobert Lindlau : The Mob. dtv, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-455-08659-4 .