The Banco Ambrosiano Scandal

The Banco Ambrosiano was founded in Milan in 1896 by Giuseppe Tovini, an Italian Catholic lawyer and banker, that was also the founder of the San Paolo Bank of Brescia and Banca di Valle Camonica. Tovini's purpose was to create a Catholic bank as a counterbalance to Italy's "lay" banks, and its goals were "serving moral organisations, pious works, and religious bodies set up for charitable aims’’; As such, religion was a central pillar of Tovini’s vision . In fact, in its early days, Banco Ambrosiano required members to be of the Catholic faith and provided credit in line with Catholic principles. Initially, it functioned as a standard financial institution, managing the finances of Lombard churches and entrepreneurs.

Things began to change dramatically with the arrival of Roberto Calvi. He began to be part of the bank since 1947 as a normal employee. Then, thanks to its effort and economic knowledge, particularly in the area of tax havens, he created a strong relationship with the managing director of the bank at that time, namely Alessandro Canesi, then become General Director. Therefore, Calvi became A.D. in 1971 substituting Canesi, and later, in 1975 he became President of the Bank. According to the foregoing, we can easily grasp how the power was full in his hands, then a truly transformation of the bank began. This latter was characterized by many acquisitions of the bank that bought Banca del Gottardo, it established an Holding in Luxembourg and many companies in some tax havens, as Nassau and Perù.

However, Banco Ambrosiano was known in principle for its ties with the Vatican Church, specifically through its dealings with the IOR (Istituto per le Opere di Religione), commonly known as the Vatican Bank. Thanks to an agreement with IOR President Monsignor Paul Marcinkus, Calvi founded Cisalpine Overseas, based in the Bahamas. Through these societies, Banco Ambrosiano moved enormous sums of money towards destinations today unknown yet. Furthermore, Calvi instaured some important social and political relations through which he consolidated its position of power in the bank, but it is useful to point out that in these relations, the two with Michele Sindona and Licio Gelli were crucial for the foregoing, because helped him to enter in the illegal Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due (P2). However, the first cracks began to appear in 1978, when 12 inspectors from the Bank of Italy raided Banco Ambrosiano and discovered multiple financial irregularities. The case was assigned to the judge Emilio Alessandrini, that was murdered only 4 months later by Prima linea, a terroristic group based on left political ideals. Thus, the governor of Bank of Italy that ordered the Banco Ambrosiano’s inspection was suspected by Procura di Roma for being interested in another case, therefore the attention was interrupted, giving time for Calvi and his associates to solve Banco Ambrosiano’s financial crisis of liquidity, with the involvement of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and ENI that provided important sum of money to the bank.

However, in 1981 things worsened for Calvi, as the P2 list of the persons involved in that Masonic Lodge was discovered, prompting Licio Gelli to flee the country and leaving Calvi increasingly exposed; thus, The president of Banco Ambrosiano was arrested in 21 may 1981, but despite of being condemned for 4 years in first grade, he was granted of a conditional liberty during which Calvi, returned Head of the Bank, seek protection from Flavio Carboni a businessmas known for its relations with Pippo Calò, who managed Cosa Nostra and Banda della Magliana’s finances.

Then, Banco Ambrosiano returned for being subject of investigation by the Bank of Italy, which grasped financial issues for 1.400 million $ shortfall that were caused by loans issued to offshore chompanies, some of which were controlled by the Vatican. These, consequently, recycled these sums of money to issue new loans or for buying shares of Banco Ambrosiano itself.

Under the pressure of Bank of Italy, Calvi was destituted by the Head of the Bank from a decision of CDA on 17 June 1982. Roberto Calvi, that known the fact that was in danger decided to move to London, where after one day, in 18 June 1982 was found hanging from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge in suspects circumstances; bricks had been stuffed in his pockets and he had more than £10,000 in cash on him. Then, Bank of Italy ordered the operation of liquidation of the Banco Ambrosiano and a restauration of the institute took place.

The first coroner’s inquest into Calvi’s death recorded a verdict of suicide in UK. There were no injuries to suggest that he had been assaulted prior to his death, and no injection marks were observed to indicate the possible administration of an incapacitating drug. However, Calvi was a devout Catholic and his family were convinced that he would not have taken his own life and therefore must have been murdered. The Calvi family secured the services of George Carman, QC to represent them. When a second inquest was held a year later it recorded an open verdict, which indicated that the court had been unable to determine the exact cause of Calvi’s death. Calvi’s family continued to maintain that his death had been a murder.

Instead, under a penal profile under the Italian jurisdiction many offenses were recognized by courts. Roberto Calvi was charged of false accounting ex. Art. 2621 Codice Civile (old version) and unlawful export of capital for which was convicted in first instance and investigated for many other financial crimes as Fraudulent bankruptcy ex. Art. 216 Italian Bankruptcy law: “The bankrupt who has distracted, concealed or dispelled his assets is punished with imprisonment from three to ten years…” but investigations didn’t brought into a conclusion before his death occured.

Then, even other subjects involved in the case have faced different judicial outcomes in relation to this white collar and not only crimes. Therefore, Licio Gelli (P2’s head) was convicted of Fraudulent bankruptcy to 12 years of prison, calumny and disclosure of official secrets for which was condemned in different proceedings. Instead, Flavio Carboni was investigated of contributing to voluntary homicide (Calvi case) under art. 575 of the Italian criminal code for which has been acquitted definitively by Corte di Cassazione in 2011 for lack of proofs. Furthermore, Giuseppe Calò has been judged for the latter crime with the same judicial outcome and, in separate trials, for Mafia-type association. Then, also Mons. Paul Marcinkus was charged of unlawful export of capital characterized by an indirect involvement and of a contribution in fraudulent bankruptcy already mentioned, but this latter was never tried because of its Vatican diplomatic immunity.

---

Today, after several years of one of London's most enduring murder mysteries, a page of Italian crime and financial scandal, although judicially closed, still carries too many lingering shadows and doubts — thus becoming one of the most iconic ‘Italian-style cases’ in history.

CC: Leo Colabella