The Court of Appeal for England and Wales has ruled that a lawsuit brought against the Vatican Secretariat of State by its former investment manager, Raffaele Mincione, can continue, even while the plaintiff is under a criminal trial in Vatican City.
Newsroom (12/08/2022 9:00 AM Gaudium Press) Raffaele Mincione first filed suit against the Vatican state department in June 2020, petitioning the High Court of England and Wales for declaratory relief against the Secretariat of State and asking judges to rule he “acted in good faith” in his dealings with the Vatican, managing hundreds of millions of euros in investments for the secretariat over a period of years and selling them a London building at 60 Sloane Ave. in 2018.
In a decision issued July 26, 2022, but first reported this past Saturday by The Daily Telegraph newspaper, the Lords Justice Jackson, Males, and Birss found that Mincione had brought a “justiciable” claim against the Vatican and had a “genuine wish to obtain public vindication.”
Mincione’s lawyers argue that the Holy See is trying to nullify the sale of the building at 60 Sloane Ave. The Vatican paid a total of 350 million euros and sold at a loss of more than 100 million.
When Mincione filed the suit, official Vatican media described his management of investments for the Secretariat of State as “speculative” and a “conflict of interest.”
The purchase of the London building from Mincione by the Secretariat of State triggered a papally-authorized Vatican investigation which lasted two years and led to the charging of 10 individuals, including Mincione, with financial crimes in Vatican City.
After he was questioned by Vatican prosecutors on several occasions and was twice the subject of Vatican-ordered search and seizure warrants, Mincione was formally charged in July last year with embezzlement, fraud, and self-laundering.
In a previous UK court hearing in November 2021, Judge Simon Salzedo ruled that Mincione’s lawsuit “should be stayed until there is a material change of circumstances,” effectively halting the case until the resolution of the Vatican’s own criminal process against the businessman.
“The substance of the matter is that there is a criminal investigation with which a competent criminal court is seised and the matters alleged against Mr Mincione and others will have obvious knock-on effects” on the case, Salzedo found.
The ruling on July 26 followed an appeal of that decision by Mincione’s UK legal team and means the lawsuit can now go ahead as a parallel process to the Vatican trial.
He has repeatedly asserted that he acted in good faith in all his dealings with the Holy See and has brought legal claims against the Vatican’s actions against him both in the UK and Switzerland. Mincione has also issued lawsuits against various media outlets for libel over their reporting of his business dealings.
The investment manager’s relationship with the Secretariat of State dates back to 2014, when the curial department, under the direction of then-Archbishop Angelo Becciu — also on trial in Vatican City — invested some 200 million euros in Mincione’s Athena Global Opportunities Fund.
The Vatican trial is ongoing, with hearings set to resume in September.
– Raju Hasmukh
(With files from The Pillar)
