Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, top Vatican official, busted in shady money smuggling deal

 

‘Monsignor 500’ Scarano was known as a priest with lots of cash. He was arrested with moneyman Giovanni Carenzio and Giovanni Zito, then with the military police, in a scheme to smuggle $26 million from Switzerland into Italy on a private jet to avoid customs and taxes.

By Corky Siemaszko / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, June 28, 2013, 12:34 PM

 

AP Photo

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano allegedly tried to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into Italy from Switzerland aboard an Italian government plane to escape taxes.

Thou shalt not smuggle a fortune into Italy.

Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a top Vatican bean counter, was busted Friday for trying to do just that along with an Italian military police honcho and a shady financier.

Scarano was the middleman in a scheme to avoid paying customs and taxes by sneaking $26 million from a Swiss bank to Rome by private jet, an Italian prosecutor said.

But Scarano, who was already under investigation for using money meant for a hospice to buy himself a Sicilian hideaway, was undone when the wiretaps on his phone caught him plotting, prosecutor Nello Rossi said.

Now the allegedly crooked cleric is cooling his heels in a Roman prison.

So are moneyman Giovanni Carenzio and Giovanni Zito, who at the time of the plot was a member of the military police’s agency for security and information.

 

via:  Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, top Vatican official, busted in shady money smuggling deal – NY Daily News