Raffaele Mincione According to a recent report in Corriere della Sera, Italy’s paper of record, an Italian financier now based in London named Raffaele Mincione has filed two civil suits against the Vatican’s Secretariat of State before Britain’s High Court of Justice, both related to a now-infamous land deal in London’s Chelsea neighbourhood he brokered in 2013.
That €200 million deal, which the Secretariat of State originally financed in part out of proceeds from the annual ‘Peter’s Pence’ collection, was to buy half of a former Harrod’s warehouse originally slated for conversion into luxury apartments.
Relationship
Five years later, after the Secretariat of State soured on its relationship with Mr Mincione, it brought in another Italian financier named Gianluigi Torzi to help them buy the rest of the property outright, reportedly spending about another €150 million.
Over the last several months, allegations of swindling, corruption and extortion have surrounded the London affair.
To date, at least seven Vatican officials have either resigned or been dismissed, and at the moment both Mr Mincione and Mr Torzi, along with two former officials of the Secretariat of State, Italian layman Fabrizio Tirabassi and Msgr Alberto Perlasca, are all facing possible criminal charges by a Vatican tribunal.
From the start, Mr Mincione has insisted he did nothing wrong and that the property was a good investment.