According to the Financial Times, $ 200 million of Catholic donations donated by the Vatican to Swiss banks were used to finance the construction of luxury real estate in London.
The Vatican Police has launched an investigation into the financial activities of the State Secretariat of the Holy See, which keeps donations from Catholics from around the world, the Financial Times reported citing informed sources. According to the newspaper, the investigation is trying to find out how the $ 200 million donations that were stored in the Vatican accounts in Swiss banks were spent on the construction of 49 luxury apartments in the Chelsea district of London.
According to FT, the Luxembourg investment fund Athena Capital, which, through the WRM company, is owned by the Italian financier Raffael Mincone, who lives in London, received a large profit from the development project.
In 2012, Athena Capital bought a building in Chelsea for a project for £ 129 million ($ 163 million), borrowing £ 75 million ($ 95 million) from Deutsche Bank. Subsequently, this loan was refinanced with another loan of £ 100 million ($ 126 million) from the Cheyne Capital hedge fund.
In 2014, Athena sold a minority stake in the project to a fund that the company managed for the Vatican. $ 200 million were transferred to Athena Capital accounts (at that time about $ 128 million) from the Vatican accounts in Switzerland, which are controlled by the State Secretariat of the Holy See, the newspaper writes. In 2018, the Vatican bought another 55% in the project, transferring Athena £ 40 million ($ 50.6 million) and taking on the repayment of debt to Cheyne Capital. In total, the Vatican bought Mincone’s stake in the project for £ 168 million, and the Italian, net of his own investments (£ 40 million), made a profit of £ 128 million ($ 162 million), FT calculated.
Raffael Mincone spent almost 20 years working in investment banks mainly in London. In 2009, he created the company WRM, which was engaged in the purchase of shares of small Italian banks. Sources of the Financial Times said that Vatican’s investment through the Mincone company was personally approved by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becci, who in the mid-2010s dealt with business affairs at the State Secretariat and first reported to Pope Benedict and then Pope Francis about them. The cardinal discussed matters with Mincone at personal meetings in the Vatican, writes FT.
Earlier in October, police raided the Vatican’s State Secretariat, seizing documents and computers, and five members of the secretariat were suspended from work until the investigation ended, FT sources said. The Vatican press service declined to comment on information about the searches and its possible participation in a construction project in London. Cardinal Becci, through his office, also declined to comment. The WRM press service emphasized that the company did not commit any wrongdoing or abuse. The company said the Vatican State Secretariat invested in Athena Capita through its private bankers at Credit Suisse, but noted that all transactions and accounts were audited. Credit Suisse's press service declined to comment. The evidence that the investigation concerned Cheyne Capital, FT did not find.
