lovenian authorities charge Vatican ‘security consultant’ with money laundering
Slovenian authorities have reportedly filed preliminary charges against an Italian woman on suspicion of laundering funds illegally obtained from the Vatican through Slovenian-registered companies.
According to Slovenian daily Večer, criminal investigators
in the capital city of Ljubljana have filed the preliminary charges against
Marogna and a Slovenian citizen they think may have been working with her.
Marogna is expected to face a Vatican trial for alleged
embezzlement after she was accused of misappropriating Vatican funds from
payments of more than 500,000 euros (around $600,000) she received from the
Vatican’s Secretariat of State through her Slovenia-registered company in 2018
and 2019.
The accusation is that funds intended for humanitarian
purposes were used for personal expenses, including stays at luxury hotels and
purchases of designer label handbags.
According to Večer, Slovenian investigators have found that
Marogna in 2019 transferred up to 575,000 euros to several Slovenia-based
companies before spending it or transferring it to other accounts.
Večer reported March 22 that Slovenian police, in
cooperation with the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering and foreign
security authorities, froze 175,000 euros in one company’s account and carried
out a house search on a Slovenian citizen suspected of cooperating with Marogna
in laundering money.
Marogna has claimed that she worked for the Secretariat of
State as a security consultant and strategist. She acknowledged receiving
hundreds of thousands of euros from the Vatican but insisted that the money was
for her Vatican consultancy work and salary.
Media have claimed that the payments were made under the
direction of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the former sostituto of the Secretariat of
State and a fellow Sardinian. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Marogna was arrested in Milan last year on an international
warrant issued by the Vatican through Interpol. She was released from jail 17
days later and in January the Vatican announced it had dropped its request for
Marogna's extradition from Italy just as Italian judges were due to rule on it.
The Vatican also said in January that the trial against
Marogna for alleged embezzlement would begin soon.
According to the Sardinia Post, in February Marogna lodged a
complaint in the Brescia prosecutor’s office for alleged crimes committed
against her in connection with her arrest.
She reportedly claimed that she was “deprived of freedom
unjustly” from the day of her arrest until the lifting of the obligation to
register her presence with Milan police in mid-January.
Marogna submitted the complaint through her new legal
representation, after her previous lawyers, who specialize in corporate
criminal law, parted ways with her in early February.
She also appealed to the Court of Review of Milan last month
against the seizure of her cellphone as part of the Vatican investigation
against her.
The smartphone is reported to have been recently sent to
Vatican investigators after being in the possession of Italian investigators
since October.
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