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The Vatican had reason to “disappoint completely” by a financier involved in a fateful British ownership agreement on which the Roman Catholic Church lost more than £ 100 million, a court in London established.
Raffaele Mincione had launched the action against the holy chair in an attempt to erase his name after his conviction of December 2023 for embezzlement and gain by the Vatican Tribunal.
Mincione, who is attractive against his Vatican tribunal judgment and a prison sentence of five and a half years, was a key figure in the acquisition of a former Harrods showroom in London. The church spent more than € 350 million on the building between 2014 and 2018.
The backers of the schedule intended to redevelop the site in luxury apartments, but the project has never obtained a building permit.
In his civil action against the holy chair, submitted in 2020 after the deal had gone acid, Minne had sought various statements from the Supreme Court in London. They recorded a finding that he and his companies had acted in ‘good faith’.
In his statement of 50 pages on Friday, Mr. Justice Robin Knowles granted various claims from Mincione and rejects “specific allegations of unfairness and specific accusations of conspiracy”.
But he added that the Vatican – an institution of clergymen and theologians who do not miss financial expertise – had reason to “completely abandon himself” with the financier.
To have stated MINCione that the value of the property was £ 275 million “not frank” and “at least without effect, misleading”, the judge thought.
In a statement after Friday’s ruling, the Holy chair said that the ruling of the English court was ‘a significant justification’ of the position of the church that it was incorrect by a person in whom it had made his faith.
The businessman nevertheless claimed the victory and said that the judge had discovered that he had not been “unfair” or participated in “any conspiracy or fraud” as part of his transactions.
“I hope that the judgment to rest for all the claims that I am unfair, or a fraudster, or a criminal,” Mincione said in a statement.
The Holy chair realized a loss of more than £ 100 million in 2022 when it sold the building in Chelsea – one of the richest neighborhoods in London – to private equity group Bain Capital.
The considerable loss led to a broad assessment of the way in which the Catholic Church deals with its finances.
Mincione was one of the seven defendants – including one of the most powerful former civil servants of the Vatican, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu – convicted in 2023 by the Vatican Court for their roles in the controversial ownership agreement.
The unprecedented criminal conviction of a cardinal and others involved in the deal was seen as part of the attempt by Pope Francis to give the church more responsibility and to improve the management of its finances.
The London lawsuit of Mincione was initially submitted in 2020, prior to the Vatican trial, while the ecclesiastical authorities carried out their own investigation into the annoyed deal and what had gone.
The staff chef of Pope Franciscus, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, testified during the civil process last July.