Cardinal George Pell cash transfers ‘a serious crime’, says Austrac
Information on money transfers from the Vatican is viewed by Austrac as ‘actionable financial intelligence of serious crime’.
Australia’s international financial watchdog considers information on mysterious money transfers from the Vatican to Victoria, allegedly to influence the trial of Cardinal George Pell, as “actionable financial intelligence of serious crime”.
Austrac classes financial intelligence as “actionable” in relation to serious crime, money laundering or terrorist payments.
Austrac can only gather intelligence on international money transfers and cannot investigate.
On Tuesday night Austrac chief executive Nicole Rose told a Senate estimates hearing that she could “confirm Austrac has looked into the matter and we’ve provided information to the AFP and to Victoria Police”. Ms Rose made the comment after NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells asked if the financial guardian had checked on reports that “Vatican investigators were told of four transfers of Vatican money to Australia of $1.1m to person or persons unknown”.
The AFP subsequently passed the information on to Victoria’s anti-corruption commission, IBAC.
On Friday Austrac confirmed to Senator Fierravanti-Wells that the information was deemed “actionable financial intelligence” and passed on for investigation.
A spokesman for Austrac told The Weekend Australian the agency had nothing to add to the comments made to the Senate committee on Tuesday.
The Australian on Thursday revealed Vatican prosecutors investigating unauthorised financial transfers had been given details of more than $2m wired to Australia between February 2017 and June 2018 — almost double the $1.1m reported by Italian newspapers and The Times of London.
There were four transactions in that period, the first for more than a quarter of a million euros from the Vatican’s secretariat of state in February 2017, according to documents being considered by Vatican investigators.
The second came from the secretariat in May 2017, while the third and fourth totalled more than €800,000 and were sent in December 2017 and June 2018.
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