Even after it had sold to the Secretariat of State 30,000 of 31,000 shares in the project, Minicone's holding company retained the 1,000 voting shares needed to control the holding company which owned the building. Mincione eventually offered to part with those, at greatly inflated prices. To broker the sale, in 2018 the Secretariat of State enlisted the help of another businessman, Gianluigi Torzi, who acted as a middleman for the purchase of the remaining shares.
Mincione's estimated profit from managing the deal, excluding profit from selling the building itself, is 60 million euros; Torzi pocketed 10 million from his participation. When the Secretariat finally got complete ownership of the building, the property came saddled with a high-interest mortgage taken out by Mincione; that mortgage might exceed the actual equity value of the property.
Torzi and his family were reportedly granted a private audience with Pope Francis in the Domus Santa Marta the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 2018. CNA made numerous requests to the Vatican press office in the last several weeks to clarify why Torzi was afforded this honor, and who arranged the audience; those requests have not been answered.
But Torzi's connections to Mincione, and to the London property deal, are much deeper than acting as a broker for the final part of the sale.
A Complicated Network
The manager of the Secretariat of State's London property is Luciano Capaldo, an architect who is a registered director of the secretariat's holding company, London 60 SA Ltd.
Calpaldo is also a part owner and former chairman of Imvest, a property development company listed in Rome. The architect has also served as a director of several other companies, including Odikon Services, which is the subject of a lawsuit for fraud in the UK, and currently suspended by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.
Torzi has also served as a director of Odikon.
In addition to the UK lawsuit, Torzi is also currently being investigated by Italian authorities for another alleged multi-million euro fraud involving Odikon and the securitization of receivables owed to a Catholic hospital in Rome, Fatebenefratelli.
A company set up by Torzi in Luxembourg, FEG International Assets SA, is a major investor in Imvest. FEG and Torzi were both also named in a recent commercial fraud suit in London's High Court.
The largest shareholder of Imvest is a firm called Meti Capital, of which Capaldo is also a part owner. Odikon is also a major shareholder of Meti.
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In 2016, Imvest offices were raided by Italian financial police in connection to charges of coordinated fraud, submission of false budgets, and false accounting. Those raids included 13 other businesses and several individuals invested in Imvest, chief among them Alfio Marchini, a wealthy Italian entrepreneur and politician.
Marchini, a twice-failed candidate for mayor of Rome while standing as a candidate for the 5 Star Alliance with the backing of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, owned a controlling interest in Imvest in 2015, the year under investigation. He owned the controlling interest through his company Astrim SpA, which was also included in the 2016 raids.
Another company included in the raids and connected to Marchini is Methorios Capital SpA, which is linked to Optimum Asset Management, a company currently in litigation with the Vatican.
Optimum is both suing and being sued by the Vatican's Institute for Works of Religion (IOR, commonly called the Vatican Bank). The IOR is suing in Malta over millions of euros in investments by the Vatican bank in another Optimum vehicle, Futura Funds Sicav.
In 2017, the Malta Independent reported Futura Fund's main shareholder is Futura Investment Management Ltd. which is majority owned by Futura Investment Holding Ltd., the main shareholder of which is Alberto Matta, who is the company's only director as well as chairman of Optimum Asset Management.
Futura Fund's website said in 2017 that the company was started in 2011 "by the management team of Optimum Asset Management," and that "Futura Investment Management Ltd." is an "affiliated company" of Optimum Asset Management.