CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 12:00 pm
Police have found hundreds of thousands of euros in cash hidden in two homes of a suspended Vatican official under investigation for corruption, according to Italian media reports.
Fabrizio Tirabassi was a lay official at the Secretariat of State until his suspension, together with four other employees, last year. According to sources close to the Secretariat for the Economy, Tirabassi oversaw several financial transactions at the secretariat which are now under investigation.
The Italian daily Domani reported that, on the order of Vatican prosecutors, Vatican gendarmes and Italian financial police searched two of Tirabassi's properties, in Rome and in Celano, a town in central Italy where Tirabassi was born.
The search, which was focused on computers and documents, reportedly also uncovered bundles of banknotes amounting to 600,000 euros ($713,000). Around 200,000 euros was reportedly found in an old shoe box.