Vatican Financial Information Authority

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The Vatican Financial Information Authority ( Italian Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria , AIF ) is the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Vatican City . The authority was established on December 30, 2010 by a motu proprio from Pope Benedict XVI. brought to life.

tasks

The authority is the supervisory body of all financial transactions in the State of the Vatican City as well as the Roman Curia and all organizations and institutions dependent on the Holy See. A year earlier, in an agreement with the European Union , the Holy See had promised the creation of such a supervisory body. On the same day that the Motu Proprio was proclaimed, the Pope promulgated the law of the State of the Vatican City on the prevention and combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Legge dello Stato della Città del Vaticano concernente la prevenzione ed il contrasto del riciclaggio dei proventi di attività criminose e del finanziamento del terrorismo) , which formed the legal basis for the establishment of the authority.

In July 2013, the Vatican's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, announced that the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR, "Vatican Bank") has hired a Washington, DC financial advisory firm , the Promontory Financial Group , to handle all accounts and forensic activities Subject to money laundering screening. This company is working on the investigation with the Vatican Financial Information Authority and the judicial authorities to resolve these cases.

Employees

The first president of the authority was Attilio Nicora , who resigned as cardinal prefect of the property administration of the Apostolic See in the summer of 2011 in order to avoid incompatibility with his new position. On January 30, 2014, at his request, Pope Francis released him from the office of President and appointed Curia Bishop Giorgio Corbellini as interim president. As director of the authority acted 2012-2014 René Brülhart , a Swiss, who from 2010 to 2012 Vice President of the Egmont Group was and by 2012 director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Liechtenstein was. His predecessor, Francesco De Pasquale , who was Director of the AIF from 2011 to 2012, was appointed to the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors had the following additional members: Claudio Bianchi , Marcello Condemi , Giuseppe Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto and Cesare Testa . From 2014 Brülhart's deputy, Tommaso Di Ruzza, initially headed the authority on a provisional basis, and from 2015 as his successor, while Brülhart himself moved to the board of directors. Di Ruzza was suspended along with other senior officials in early October 2019 after a raid on the agency.

On April 15, 2020, Giuseppe Schlitzer was appointed director and Federico Antellini Russo was appointed vice director.

Investigations at the authority

In autumn 2019, the Vatican public prosecutor's office seized documents and computers belonging to the financial information authority during a raid . According to public prosecutor Gian Piero Milano, the reasons for the search were advertisements from the Vatican Bank and the General Auditor in spring 2019. The department that maintained contacts with the worldwide diplomatic missions of the Holy See abroad was affected .

Web links

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  1. ↑ Scarano case: money frozen, investigations could be expanded. Vatican Radio, July 12, 2013, accessed July 14, 2013 .
  2. ^ Rinuncia del Presidente dell'autoritá di Informazione finanziaria e Nomina del Presidente ad interim , in: Holy See Press Office: Daily Bulletin of January 30, 2014.
  3. ^ Financial Information Authority Appoints New Director and Executive . Vatican Information Service. November 7, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ Media reports: Chief of the Vatican Financial Supervisory Authority suspended. kathisch.de of October 3, 2019
  5. ↑ a b Julius Müller-Meiningen: Razzia: Did Vatican Millions Land in Dark Channels? Augsburger Allgemeine from October 4, 2019
  6. ^ Nomina del Direttore e del Vice Direttore dell'Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office, April 15, 2020, accessed April 15, 2020 (Italian).
  7. ^ Vatican: Public prosecutor's office confiscates financial documents. kathisch.de from October 1, 2019