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Pope Francis has just axed the all-male, all-Italian board of the body that oversees the Vatican’s financial activities, aiming to draw a line under the money-laundering scandals that plagued his predecessor. It’s the latest sign of the new pontiff’s desire to clean up and open up possibly the only institution that has had more scandals than Wall St in recent years.
The statement said the IOR would continue to "serve with prudence". It added that strict regulatory supervision and improvements in compliance and transparency were critical for the institute's future.
But it said Francis recognised "the importance of the IOR's mission for the good of the Catholic church, the Holy See and the Vatican city state".
Mgr Scarano is alleged to have masterminded a plot that sounds like an airport novel. He attempted to bring €20million in cash belonging to a wealthy family of shipowners from a Swiss bank to Rome in a private plane, thereby evading customs and tax controls.
Italian prosecutors have had their eye on the Vatican bank for several years but, until now, have had great difficulty in obtaining any information from the Holy See, which has pleaded diplomatic immunity and exemption from normal international banking rules on the grounds that the Institute for Works of Religion “is not a bank in the normal sense of the word”.
Juan C. Zarate, now a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, is one of four people appointed Friday to the board of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), which was set up by Pope Benedict XVI to clean up the Vatican’s financial activities after a string of scandals.
US intelligence helped Saddam's Ba`ath Party seize power for the first time in 1963. Evidence suggests that Saddam was on the CIA payroll as early as 1959, when he participated in a failed assassination attempt against Iraqi strongman Abd al-Karim Qassem. In the 1980s, the US and Britain backed Saddam in the war against Iran, giving Iraq arms, money, satellite intelligence, and even chemical & bio-weapon precursors. As many as 90 US military advisors supported Iraqi forces and helped pick targets for Iraqi air and missile attacks.
Juan Zarate is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the senior national security analyst for CBS News, a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Law School, and a national security and financial integrity consultant. Zarate served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism from 2005 to 2009 and was responsible for developing and implementing the U.S. government’s counterterrorism strategy and policies related to transnational security threats. He was the first ever assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, where he led domestic and international efforts to attack terrorist financing, the innovative use of the Treasury Department’s national security–related powers, and the global hunt for Saddam Hussein’s assets. He is also a former federal prosecutor who served on terrorism prosecution teams prior to 9/11, including the investigation of the USS Cole attack.
The three other new board members are, by the Holy See’s standards, a diverse bunch: they include Maria Bianca Farina, head of the Italian Postal Service’s insurance arm, and Joseph Yuvaraj Pillay, the former head of Singapore’s central bank. Marc Odendall, a former banker who administers and advises philanthropic organisations, completes the line-up.
The agency’s new statutes, approved in November, stipulate that the board members must have recognized professional competence in legal, economic and financial fields, and be free from any conflict of interest.
originally posted by: Bassago
a reply to: eisegesis
Sorry I don't care any more about the Vatican and all it's child molesting and mafia money laundering. The EU and NATO should invade and put us and them out of the misery they have caused.
Some places are just too evil to remain. I know Francis seems like a good guy but IMO it's too late to redeem this corrupt bunch. I mean c'mon, they've been at this for centuries.