The mysterious murder of ‘God’s Banker’

43 years ago this week, the BBC reported on the death of Italian banker Roberto Calbi, whose body was found in strange circumstances in central London. His bank is associated with the Vatican, the Masonic group and the Mafia, and his murder left many unanswered questions.

Roberto Calvi was the chairman of the prestigious Banco Ambrosiano, Italy’s largest private bank. He was so closely connected to the Roman Catholic Church that he was known as the “Banker of God.”

Warning: This article contains references to suicide and murder

However, in June 1982, Kalbi, 62, went missing. Then, on the morning of June 18th, his body was found hanging under the Blackfriars Bridge in London.

“Kalbi was at the heart of an incredibly complicated web of international fraud and conspiracy,” reported BBC’s Hugh Scully. “It had something to do with the Italian banking world, the underworld, the Mafia, the Freemasonry and almost all the surprising Vatican.” The death of the banker would cause a wide range of political and financial scandals in Italy. It involves millions of dollars disappearing and leaves a lasting mystery.

Calvi was missing nine days ago He was discovered It is hanging from the foothold under the bridge. But it was the strange circumstances of his death that baffled the British police. His pockets were packed with bricks and had around 10,000 pounds ($14,000) of cash in multiple currencies. He also had a fake passport named Jean Roberto Calvini. Nevertheless, the first coroner’s report in July 1982 determined that the banker had taken his life because he had found no evidence of illicit play in his body. But even then there was suspicion that something much darker was ongoing.

“Calvi’s final journey wasn’t for anyone considering suicide,” Scully said. “Indeed, he had secretly made the most elaborate plan to get out of Italy.” The banker had shaved his mustache to avoid being recognized before disguising the route from Italy, by first passing through other countries and hiring him a private plane to protect his spirit in London. “He had a false passport and air ticket after a month’s lease at his Chelsea apartment,” Scully continued. “Inside my passport was a current Brazilian visa and the airline tickets were for one-way tickets to Rio de Janeiro. Why are you asking, do you go all those lengths to finish at the end of the rope under the Blackfriars Bridge?”

Calvi wasn’t the only unexpected death at Banco Ambrosiano. The day before his body was discovered, his personal secretary, Teresa Kolrocher, appears to have jumped at her death from the fourth floor of the bank headquarters in Milan. She leaves a note denounced her boss, writing that he should be “cursed twice for the damage he caused to the bank and all its employees.”

Calvi and his banks ran in a murky world where financial, organized crime, politics and religion overlap. Founded in 1896, Banco Ambrosiano has a long history with the Catholic Church and has become a major shareholder by the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), which is often known as the Vatican Bank. The IOR holds Pope and Clergy bank accounts, but also manages the Church’s financial investments. Because the Vatican is its own country, Italian regulators do not have IOR control or surveillance.

“The Vatican is completely without exchange control or other government regulations. It’s all about secrets,” Scully said. “The Vatican has to explain financial transactions to anyone and can send enormous amounts of money anywhere in the world without anyone knowing anything other than the direct affiliated parties.”

Through his role as head of Banco Ambrosiano, Calvi has developed a close relationship with his opposing numbers, Chairman Paul Martinkinks, and his opposing numbers. In order, this American priests There were financial connections and companions that raised eyebrows. “The best known of these was Michele Sindna, an international banker with mafia ties who is currently sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud in the United States,” Scully said. Known in the banking world as a “shark,” Sindna would later be transferred to an Italian prison where he would meet his own suspicious end after drinking a coffee mixed with cyanide in 1986.

Sindna had been leading Kalbi during her banking career since the late 1960s, both belonging to a shadowy Masonic Lodge called Propaganda 2 (P2). The Masonic group is linked to an extreme right-wing group, run by Italian multi-millionaires and published fascist Risiogeri. Major figures in the military, politics, business and newspapers were counted among members. Italian journalist Count Paolo Filo dera Torre told the BBC in 1982 that P2 was, in theory, a Masonic lodge, “in fact it was very related.” [the] There’s all sorts of dirty deals with the mafia.”

In March 1981, Italian police stormed Guerri’s office and safely discovered a list of hundreds of P2 members, including politicians, military personnel, media tycoons and future Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The revelation caused a Political explosion. Italian Prime Minister Arnardo Forlani and his entire cabinet resigned, the police chief shot himself and the former minister rushed to the hospital after an overdose.

The police attack also found documents of compromise that involved Kalbi in fraud and illegal offshore operations. By May 1981, the banker had been arrested and committed a crime of violating currency. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released on bail while pending appeal. Kalbi used this as an opportunity to skip the country with a briefcase full of terrible documents about Ambrosiano’s activities. Within days of his arrival in London, his bank collapsed, leaving him with huge debts.

“Before Roberto Calvi disappeared, Italian investigators discovered that $1.5 billion was missing from his bank,” Scully said. “It is now believed that this money was sent abroad through Vatican Bank, which escapes Italian exchange management. Some of the money was loaned to the South American country at low interest rates, as directed by the Catholic Church.

Marcinkus was also asked to ask questions, but was recognized as an employee of the Vatican, and he maintained his innocence of fraud. The Vatican never admitted legal liability for the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, but in 1984 he said he was moral liable for bankruptcy, making a voluntary $406 million contribution to the bank’s creditors.

Investigators believed that the shell company founded by Calvi was used to move money to support secret political activities in other countries and to move money to wash it for clients such as the Mafia. “Therefore, police on the Calvi issue have threatened many powerful people in Italy, with some people giving him the motivation for his murder,” Scully said.

Filo dela Torre, who knew Kalbi, told the BBC in 1982 that he believed the banker had been killed and that his body was left under the Blackfriars Bridge. He said that P2 members were wearing black robes at their meetings and calling themselves themselves.Frati Neri“The Italian word for “Black Friers.” When Scully said this made the sound of Calvi’s death “like something from Borgias,” the Italian journalist replied. We’ll be back [a] It’s like Italian tradition. ”

Calvi’s family also refused to accept the suicide sentence. The suicide sentence was overturned in 1983 when the second interrogation handed out an unresolved verdict on death. However, his family, including his widow, Clara Calvi, continued to ask for an investigation, and hired their own private investigators and forensic experts to investigate the death of the banker. After Calvi’s body was like that It was excavated in 1998evidence was created that he could not commit suicide. Forensic examinations showed that the injury to his neck was hanging and contradicting his death, and that Calvi’s hands had never touched the bricks in his clothes pocket. In October 2002, an Italian judge concluded that the bankers actually had it I was murdered.

Italian Police investigation It was launched, and five people were tried in Rome in October 2005 and charged with Calvi’s murder. Prosecutor Luca Tescalori claimed that the banker was murdered for stealing mafia money he intended to do the laundry, and that Calvi had planned to blackmail several other prominent people, including politicians.

June 2007, a 20 month examSardinian investor Flavio Carboni, his ex-girlfriend Manuela Kreiszig, Roman entrepreneur Ernesto Diotalevi, Calvi’s former driver bodyguard Silvanovitter, and convicted Cosanostra treasurer Pippocaro – who had two life sentences for the unrelated Mafia Mimes Everything was innocent of involvement in Calvi’s death. Speculation remains as to who commissioned and ultimately carried out the murder of an Italian banker, but to date no one has been convicted.

More stories and radio scripts that have not been published so far, in your inbox, History Newslettermeanwhile Required list Twice a week, we offer a handpicked selection of features and insights.