Details surrounding the mysterious death of Roberto Calvi in 1982, have started to surface. Since there's been so much attention on the Vatican lately, I figured this story from the Sydney Herald Sun was worth posting.
Mafia link to banker's death
A CRIME boss, a mobster and two others have been charged over the 1982 hanging of the man dubbed "God's banker".
Roberto Calvi was thought to have committed suicide when he was found hanging from scaffolding under London's Blackfriars Bridge with bricks and $A19,500 in his pockets.
He had been the president of Banco Ambrosiano, a bank in which the Vatican's bank held a significant stake.
Mr Calvi was found dead in June 1982 just days after his bank collapsed in what was considered Italy's biggest postwar banking scandal.
In the latest twist to the saga, prosecutors say the Mafia killed Mr Calvi to punish him for stealing from them and from Italian financier Licio Gelli.
Mr Gelli was the head of the P2 lodge, a Masonic organisation whose members once included prominent politicians, businessmen and military officers.
Prosecutors are expected to claim Mr Calvi was killed to stop him revealing explosive secrets about Italy's political and religious establishment.
The judge said the trial of convicted Cosa Nostra treasurer Pippo Calo, Roman crime boss Ernesto Diotallevi, Sardinian financier Flavio Carboni and his ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig would start on October 6.
The prosecutors' inquiry has focused on millions of dollars which flowed through the bank's offshore accounts in the weeks before Mr Calvi's death.
Banco Ambrosiano fell apart following the disappearance of $A1.69 billion.
The Vatican's bank agreed to pay $A325.56 million to the Italian bank's creditors but denied any wrongdoing.
Yesterday's development comes two years after a new autopsy established that Mr Calvi did not commit suicide -- as a London coroner had earlier ruled.
The report was ordered by Rome magistrates acting on the claims of a supergrass that the Mafia killed Mr Calvi for unsuccessfully investing its money. - AGENCIES
Source: Herald Sun
