Former auditor general sues Vatican for wrongful dismissal | CPT PPP Coverage

Cryptopolytech (CPT) Public Press Pass (PPP)
News of the Day COVERAGE

200000048 – World Newser
•| #World |•| #Online |•| #Media |•| #Outlet |

View more Headlines & Breaking News here, as covered by cryptopolytech.com

For the first time in its history the Vatican is facing a hefty lawsuit by one of its former employees.

Libero Milone, a former top official at Deloitte whom Pope Francis hired in 2015 to be the Holy See’s first-ever auditor general, has announced that he’s suing the Secretariat of State for 9.25 million euros for being fired just two years in his five-year mandate.

Milone, an 74-year-old Italian who was born in the Netherlands and educated in England, was hired to carry out an annual audit of the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia and institutions linked to the Holy See. After he was abruptly dismissed in 2017, Cardinal Angelo Becciu – who was then deputy-Secretary of State (il Sostituto) – told the Reuters news agency that the auditor was fired for spying on several Vatican officials.

But in a meeting last week with a few journalists chosen by his law firm, which did not include La Croix, Milone said he was actually sacked because he had discovered “very serious irregularities”.

2.5 million euros “missing”

Milone’s former deputy, Ferruccio Panicco, is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. In their 53-page suit, which La Croix has seen, the two men cite numerous irregularities they found in the Vatican before they were fired.

Among them was the “disappearance” of 2.5 million euros from a contribution in the early 2010s intended for a foundation linked to the Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital in Rome. The money was earmarked for the construction of a new wing of the hospital, but it ended up paying for a simple plaque.

The lawsuit also describes a 2013 transfer of funds to a foundation for Italian political parties, as well illegal expenditures by the Vatican Gendarmerie for a construction project. In addition, it lists various conflicts of interest, suspicions of money laundering, etc.

A building in London

All in all the assertions, which are unverifiable as they stand and quite dizzying, give the image of a Vatican plagued by generalized financial mismanagement.

The two former officials also claim that they asked the Secretariat of State – in vain – for access to documents to verify the legality of various investments, including the purchase of a building in London. This building, in which the Vatican invested between 2014 and 2018, is currently at the center of a mismanagement and embezzlement currently underway in the Vatican. Among the ten defendants is Cardinal Becciu, the former deputy-Secretary of State.

Milone and Panicco claim their dismissal for “espionage” is not only unjustified, but has seriously damaged their personal and professional reputation. Moreover, the 63-year-old Panicco is claiming that the stage-4 prostate cancer he’s suffering from was partly brought on by his dismissal. He’s suing for compensation.