Vatican freezes Monsignor Nunzio Scarano's ...

- photo removed -

Assets.  Freezes his assets.

Oh.  I thought you meant... 

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has frozen the assets of a monsignor who was arrested in a plot to smuggle 20 million euro ($26 million) into Italy and warned Friday that other people may be caught up in the investigation.

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor on July 9 froze the accounts at the Vatican bank of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested by Italian authorities June 28 on accusations of corruption and slander. Scarano allegedly plotted to bring 20 million euro into Italy from Switzerland in July of last year aboard a private jet to avoid declaring it at customs.

Prosecutors say the money was believed to have belonged to friends of Scarano, members of the d’Amico shipping family. Scarano has reportedly told prosecutors he stood to gain 2.5 million euro in commission for the operation.  [Ed. Note: My best friend in school was Larry Damico!] 

In addition to the money-smuggling case, Scarano is also under investigation by prosecutors in his hometown of Salerno for allegedly taking 560,000 euros ($729,000) in cash out of his Vatican account in 2009 and carrying it into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home. He used a complicated scheme to give dozens of friends 10,000 in cash in exchange for checks, made out to be donations, that he then deposited in an Italian bank account. - Money-Laundering Post

Bonus breaking news update:

Talk about crooks.  The Pope is said to be personally inspecting expensive cars in the parking lot of the Vatican to see who they belong to and just how they were able to afford such luxury vehicles and have enough left over to buy all those cappa majangas!  He's also cracking down on priests asking for donations to buy gourmet foods, wine and booze, expensive cigars, multiple computer monitors and laptops and ipads and handguns.  That's what I heard, at least.



H/T to Nan for the assets-tip.  Please, no blow-back.