According to one testimony reportedly quoted in the search order, which cited Tirabassi as the source of the information, the commissions were collected in the Dubai company and then divided between Crasso and Tirabassi. But at some point, Mincione stopped paying the commissions to the Dubai company.
According to La Repubblica, a witness testimony in the search decree also reportedly said that there was an "axis" of understanding between Tirabassi and Crasso, in which Tirabassi, a secretariat official, would get a kickback for "directing" secretariat investments certain ways.
The search warrant also reportedly included financial consultant Filippo Notarcola and Renato Giovannini, dean of the Faculty of Law and a professor of finance at a Rome university, who are suspected of mediating certain transactions related to the London property.
According to Adnkronos, Vatican investigators are looking into whether Giovannini was a go-between for the Secretariat of State and Torzi.
The search order, written by Rome judge Maria Teresa Gerace, also reportedly said that there was an "imminent danger that things or traces of the crime will be dispersed" and it was "likely that relevant documentation for the prosecution of the investigation will be concealed."
Last month, an Italian newsweekly said it had obtained a document in which Vatican investigators focused on the activities of Enrico Crasso, an Italian-born Swiss citizen, as a central figure in the ongoing financial scandal.
The letter rogatory -- a formal request from courts in one country to the courts of another country for judicial assistance -- was reported on by L'Espresso. CNA has not verified the document's authenticity.
The investigators reportedly said that their hypothesis was that links between various figures inside and outside the Secretariat of State might amount "to the crime of criminal association to the detriment of the Holy See."
L'Espresso reported that Crasso appeared to be a pivotal figure in that framework.
Crasso, a former banker at Credit Suisse, is the manager of the Centurion Global Fund, in which the Holy See is the principal investor. He began working with the Vatican in 1993. It was Crasso who introduced Mincione to the Secretariat of State as an investment manager for Vatican funds.
According to L'Espresso, investigators alleged that Crasso repeatedly "contributed to using funds other than institutional funds and for unprofitable speculative investments." They also reportedly highlighted "an evident conflict of interest and a possible risk of fraud to the detriment of the Secretariat of State."
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
"It has not been possible to reconstruct the total commissions collected by him for his activity," the investigators reportedly told Swiss authorities.
The Vatican announced Thursday that Pope Francis had requested that responsibility for financial funds and real estate assets be transferred out of the Vatican's Secretariat of State.
The pope asked for the management and administration of the funds and investments to be given instead to APSA, which functions as the Holy See treasury and sovereign wealth manager, and also administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City.
Pope Francis' decision was outlined in an Aug. 25 letter to Cardinal Pietro Parolin. In the letter, made public Nov. 5, the pope asked for "particular attention" to be paid to two specific financial matters: "investments made in London" and the Centurion Global investment fund.
Pope Francis requested that the Vatican "exit as soon as possible" from the investments, or "at least dispose of them in such a way as to eliminate all reputational risks."
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.