Italian Court Refuses To Release Vatican Funds Held In Money Laundering Probe

For a second time, a court in Italy has refused to release $30.2 million in funds belonging to the Vatican Bank (the Institute for the Works of Religion) seized in September by Italian authorities in a money laundering investigation. (See prior posting.) The funds were in a Vatican Bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano SpA.  According to AP yesterday, court documents show that prosecutors suspect that clergy may have been front men for corrupt businessmen or mobsters.