A Vatican monsignor already on trial for allegedly plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland to Italy has been ordered re-arrested for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money.
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The financial police in the southern city of Salerno said in a statement Tuesday that Monsignor Nunzio Scarano’s Vatican bank accounts had been used to transfer millions of euros (dollars) in fictitious donations from offshore companies. Scarano’s lawyer has said his client was merely taking money from donors who thought they were funding a home for the terminally ill.
Scarano is on trial in Rome on the smuggling charges following his July arrest, reduced to house arrest because of his ailing health. In announcing the new detention Tuesday Salerno police said millions had also been seized.