Pell’s nemesis insists he will be found not guilty of Vatican fraud

Disgraced cardinal Angelo Becciu has mounted an 11th-hour blitz in the Italian media, insisting he is not a crook and has ‘faith’ he will be acquitted.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu: ‘I don’t have villas, I don’t have houses, I don’t have apartments.’ Picture: AFP

Disgraced cardinal Angelo Becciu has mounted an 11th-hour blitz in the Italian media, insisting he is not a crook and has “faith” he will be acquitted of all charges, from embezzlement and fraud to perverting the course of justice.

In a move dubbed by the Vatican press as his “Nixon moment”, Cardinal Becciu offered the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, a rare interview in full knowledge that a Vatican tribunal is about to hand down a verdict following a two-year corruption trial.

Judges in Vatican City surprised trial observers last month when they announced that they planned to deliver their decisions in the second week of December, within seven days of hearing closing arguments.

The prosecutor has recommended that the 10 defendants accused of an array of financial crimes serve sentences totalling more than 73 years, with Cardinal Becciu facing seven years and up to €14m ($23m) in fines for embezzlement.

Cardinal Becciu – nemesis of the late cardinal George Pell – and architect of the sacking of the Vatican’s first independent auditor-general, Libero Milone, not only proclaimed his innocence on the evening news but suggested he was the real victim of forces inside the Holy See who wished to derail Pope Francis’ financial reforms.

“I will continue to proclaim my innocence and I will say that never have I stolen, never have I done anything to ameliorate my personal economic position. I don’t have villas, I don’t have houses, I don’t have apartments and my personal bank accounts are very, very modest,” he said.

“My sole aim was to make decisions that benefited the Holy See. If others profited from this, then it is upon them to respond … I can also say that I am proud of having helped the Pope in his campaign for financial reforms in the Vatican and took the liberty of telling the Pope that there were some people who did not deserve to stay working within the Holy See.”

Cardinal Becciu’s proclamation of support for Pope Francis’s reforms come as a surprise given that those who were appointed to lead the clean-up, including Pell and Mr Milone, both publicly said he was the principal architect of internal opposition to transparency and oversight.

In May last year, Pell, took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement in which he described Cardinal Becciu’s testimony to the court as “incomplete”.

Pell added that Becciu had given a “spirited defence of his blameless subordinate role in the Vatican’s finances” and challenged him on several, unexplained payments including a six-figure payment to an Australian tech company during Pell’s prosecution and trial for sex charges in Melbourne.

He accused Cardinal Becciu of failing to explain his rejection of the Pope’s decision to approve a supervisory role for the then new Council and Secretariat for the Economy and said he had not properly explained his role in the sacking of auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the auditor-general. Pell also described Cardinal Becciu’s accounts to the court on the use of church as “bizarre” and “at odds” with what was expected.

When Cardinal Becciu was asked by the TV interviewer if he planned to ask for clemency from the Pope if he is found guilty, he said he did not allow himself to contemplate such a possibility: “The Holy Father always told me ‘Have faith, have faith’. I have faith because I am innocent.”

Four years have passed since the launch of a criminal investigation into the Vatican’s 2018 acquisition of a building in London’s exclusive Mayfair from a businessman and investment manager, Raffaele Mincione. The Holy See lost more than €100m on the deal.

Apart from his alleged role in the property agreement, Cardinal Becciu stands accused of diverting church funds not just to his family, including €250,000 to his brother, Antonio, but also to pay Cecilia Marogna, a self-described intelligence agent who told investigators she had conducted surveillance for the cardinal on other officials.

She is accused of spending thousands on luxury goods including handbags and stays at five-star resorts.

Cardinal Becciu’s reference to his “very modest bank accounts” also raised eyebrows in Rome as it emerged during the trial that he offered to repay half a million euros from his personal account with the Vatican bank when Interpol asked him to explain his payments to Ms Marogna.

The tribunal’s verdict is expected to be handed down at the weekend.