Italian justice ordered the arrest for tax fraud of Italian businessman Gianluigi Torzi, linked to the Vatican in the controversial purchase of a luxury property in London, police sources reported on Monday.
Torzi is accused of having illegally earned 15 million euros (17.8 million dollars) and of having set up a complex system of false invoices to deceive the treasury, police explained in a statement.
The Vatican justice, which requested the legal assistance of the Italian authorities, investigates Torzi for the opaque financial arrangements and the network of companies and consultancies, almost all Italian, which ended up creating a hole of more than 454 million euros (about 500 million dollars) in the finances of the Holy See.
According to the Italian investigation, Torzi transferred part of his earnings to two English companies and invested in shares of companies listed on the Italian stock exchange for an amount of more than 4.5 million euros (5.3 million dollars).
According to the Italian news agency AGI, Torzi is in London and has not been arrested so far.
“It is evident that Gianluigi Torzi, with the collaboration of figureheads and henchmen, uses numerous companies, including those based abroad, as a screen for his business activity, largely based on tax evasion, which provides for the use of illicit income in financial speculation, “summarized the Rome prosecutor’s office when ordering his arrest.
In an unusual event, the Vatican detained Gianluigi Torzi for a few days in June 2020 in the framework of the investigation opened after the scandal caused by the purchase of a luxury property in London with funds from the Secretary of State.
In the dark investment of more than 400 million dollars for the acquisition of a building in the financial heart of London, which occurred between 2014 and 2018, Torzi would have charged millions of euros as commission.
The Vatican called for the freezing of Torzi’s assets in London, but an English judge last month reversed the freezing of the three bank accounts of the Italian broker because the Vatican did not present enough evidence for the case.
Last November, Pope Francis left the Secretary of State without its own funds and ordered to cut all ties with the suspected investment fund as part of an internal campaign in favor of the transparency of its accounts.