In a Feb. 28 audience, Vatican head prosecutor Alessandro Diddi estimated that the Vatican’s total losses from the property at 60 Sloane Avenue amounted to 217 million euros (around $241 million).
A month prior, the Vatican’s prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy said that the controversial London building was being sold above its valuation price.
Father Juan A. Guerrero, S.J., told Vatican News that “the contract of sale has been signed, we have received 10% of the deposit and it will be concluded in June 2022.”
Also during the Feb. 28 hearing, defense lawyers again raised objections about what they said was the prosecutors’ failure to deposit certain evidentiary files for their inspection.
Court president Giuseppe Pignatone responded to their protests on March 1, saying he believed that the problem of the missing evidence was resolved in November 2021, and that he “does not have the power to order the promoters” to deposit any further documentation.
A lawyer for defendant Cecilia Marogna, a self-described security consultant, said on March 1 that his client had asked NATO, the Vatican Secretariat of State, and Italy to release her from the obligation of secrecy, and that she feared for her safety.
Marogna has been charged with embezzlement for allegedly receiving hundreds of thousands of euros from the Secretariat of State in connection with Becciu, and then reportedly spending the money earmarked for charity on luxury goods and vacations — which she denies.
According to Marogna, Becciu also paid her to create dossiers of incriminating information on Vatican personnel. Becciu insists that he was not involved in any wrongdoing.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.