CHAPTER 13
THE SHELL GAME
He was a perfectly normal person, without vices. He lived for power. He was
frighteningly introverted. He never looked you in the eye when he spoke. It used to
drive me mad. I wanted to hit him over the head with a hammer.
Roberto Rosone on Roberto Calvi
(quoted in Philip Willan's The Vatican at War, 2003)
It began as a means of providing funding to Operation Gladio and its strategy of tension, along with to
Operation Condor and its support of right-wing regimes in South and Central America. Pablo Escobar
and other leading drug lords were encouraged—often by priests and bishops and by Roberto Calvi—
to deposit their earnings in eight firms that had been set up by the Vatican as money laundries.1
Six of
these firms—Astolfine SA, United Trading Corporation, Erin SA, Bellatrix SA, Belrose SA, and
Starfield SA—were in Panama, a seventh—Manic SA—in Luxembourg, and the eighth—Nordeurop
Establishment—in Liechtenstein. By 1978, when John Paul II ascended to the papal throne, the money
coming in to these firms from the Medellin Cartel alone was enormous, since Escobar, at the height of
his power, was smuggling fifteen tons of cocaine into the United States every day.2
The eight laundries were simply storefronts, manned by secretaries and street thugs. The money
they received was wired or transported by courier, often a cleric, to the central headquarters of
Banco Ambrosiano in Milan. From Milan, the money was re-routed to the IOR, which charged a
processing fee of 15 to 20 percent. From Vatican City, the funds were transferred to numbered bank
accounts at Banca del Gottardo or Union Bank of Switzerland.3
With the money flowing between tax sheltered
banks, the Guardia di Finanza (Italy's financial police) and other bank auditing agencies
were hard-pressed to obtain the names of the depositors, let alone evidence of criminal malfeasance.
AIR SCRANTON
The CIA was an active participant in the arrangement since the Agency was deeply involved with
Escobar and the drug cartels. As soon as the laundries were created, the CIA set up Air America
North America, a fleet of Seneca cargo planes that operated out of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport
in Avoca, Pennsylvania. The planes made regular three thousand mile runs to Colombia to pick up the
bundles of cocaine that were distributed to dealers throughout the east coast.4
Frederick “Rik” Luytjes, the head of the outfit, and his fellow pilots made up to $1.5 million per
run. Luytjes, by his own admission, was a CIA operative and the funds were used to sponsor black
operations in South and Central America.5
A substantial amount of this cash was funneled into the
IOR's offshore shells.6
LIMITLESS LOANS
In addition to the cash from the cartels, money poured into the eight shell companies in the form of
loans from Banco Ambrosiano in Milan. The loans were easy to obtain. Roberto Calvi, who
remained Ambrosiano's CEO, convinced the bank's directors that the offshore firms were concerns of
the Vatican for the exportation of “parochial goods.”
Of all the directors of all the banks in all the world, the directors of Banco Ambrosiano were the
least likely to question the integrity of the undertakings of Holy Mother Church. The bank had been
established in 1896 by Giuseppe Tovini to provide financial service to Roman Catholic institutions
and families. Named after St. Ambrose, the firm's expressly Catholic character was protected by a
statute that required shareholders and directors to submit a baptismal certificate and statement of
good conduct from their parish priest before they could vote.7
Ambrosiano's independence from
secular interest was protected by a statute that barred any individual from obtaining more than 5
percent of its shares. The bank's purpose was to serve “moral organizations, pious works, and
religious bodies set up for charitable aims.”8
Any objection that the directors might have to the
strange, new offshore companies were offset by the fact that the loans were sent not to Liechtenstein
or Luxembourg but directly to the Vatican Bank.9
THE FIRST PURPOSE
Almost overnight, the eight phony firms became multi-million dollar businesses that had been
established without capital expenditure. It was a mind-boggling accomplishment. The Ponzi scam
served a threefold purpose. The first was to provide a new source of arms revenue for “gladiators”
involved in the strategy of tension and right-wing regimes, even the regimes at war with America's
closest allies. Bellatrix, for example, used $200 million of its assets to purchase French-made Exocet
AM-39 missiles for Argentina's military junta in its struggle with England over the Falkland Islands.10
Other offshore companies engaged in obtaining Libyan arms supplies for the Argentine troops and for
Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza Debayle, whose regime was threatened by left-wing Sandinista
National Liberation Front.11 Since the Vatican owned the companies, Holy Mother Church was
becoming a principal source of murder and violence throughout Italy and Latin America.
Licio Gelli was a pivotal figure in the plan. Along with fellow P2 members Umberto Ortolani
(who had received the title Gentleman of His Holiness from Pope Paul VI) and Bruno Tassan Din, the
managing director of the huge Rizzoli publishing firm, Gelli had created many of the offshore
corporations, including Bellatrix.12 He was also charged with overseeing the distribution of arms in
Italy and South America through P2, which had established lodges in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and
Paraguay.13 Gelli was the perfect man for the job. He retained dual citizenship in Italy and Argentina
and was well-known and respected by the leading Latino strongmen, including Argentina's Jorge
Videla, Chile's Agostino Pinochet, Bolivia's Hugo Banzer Suárez, and Paraguay's General Alfredo
Stroessner.14
THE SECOND PURPOSE
The second purpose of the scam was for the Vatican Bank to obtain financial control of the wealthy
Milan bank. The shell companies used a portion of the loans to purchase Ambrosiano stock. Since the
bank's charter prohibited any institution or person gaining more than 5 percent of the shares, the stock
was purchased by a multitude of phony corporations that were spin-offs of the eight phony firms. The
United Trading Corporation, for example, spawned a host of nominal subsidiaries, including Ulricor,
La Fidele, Finproggram, Ordeo, Lantana, Casadilla, Marbella, Imparfin, and Teclefin. By 1982,
Ulricor ranked as the eighth-largest shareholder of Ambrosiano stock with 1.2 percent.15
To conceal the fraud, Calvi opened Ambrosiano Group Banco Comercial in Managua. Its official
function was “conducting international commercial transactions.” But its real function was to serve as
a repository beyond the purview of the Guardia di Finanza, where all evidence concerning the
fraudulent and criminal devices used to acquire majority interest in the Milan parent bank could be
concealed.16 For this convenience, of course, there was a price to be paid. Calvi traveled with Gelli
to Nicaragua and dropped several million into Somoza's pocket. The dictator was so pleased that he
not only pronounced his blessing upon the new branch but also granted Calvi a Nicaraguan diplomatic
passport, which he retained for the rest of his life.17
To increase the value of the shares, Calvi announced huge stock dividends and rights offerings,
along with optimistic pronouncements about the future of Banco Ambrosiano and its new Latin
branches. The shares began to split and split again. The shells used their increased stock holdings to
borrow more money, with which they purchased more stock in the name of more and more new spin off
firms. They never paid interest on their borrowings. They simply added the accrued interest to
their loan balances and backed their obligation for collateral with more of their bank stock.18 It
worked like a charm. By the start of 1981, the Vatican had succeeded in gaining ownership of 16
percent of Ambrosiano's shares.19
THE POPE'S PURPOSE
The third purpose of the scam was to provide funding for Solidarity in Poland. As soon as he was
crowned with the tiara, John Paul II met in private with Calvi to demand that an ample share of the
money from the Ponzi scheme be channeled to Lech Wałęsa , who had been “sent by God, by
Providence.”20 Such payments met with the approval of Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's
national security advisor, and General Vernon Walters, the US ambassador-at-large.21 By 1981, over
$100 million in funds from the drug cartels and the illegal bank loans flowed into the coffers of the
struggling Polish labor movement, making the new pope a great hero in his native country.22 Few,
including Wałęsa , opted to look the gift horse in the mouth to discern that the true source of the manna
from heaven was the drug trade.
Early in 1982, Calvi discussed the pope's involvement in laundering money for Solidarity with
Flavio Carboni, an emissary to Ambrosiano from the CIA. In one of their secretly taped
conversations, Calvi can be heard saying:
Marcinkus must watch out for Casaroli, who is the head of the group that opposes him. If Casaroli should meet one of those
financiers in New York who are working with Marcinkus, sending money to Solidarity, the Vatican would collapse. Or even if
Casaroli should find one of those papers that I know of—goodbye Marcinkus, goodbye Wojtyła, goodbye Solidarity. The last
operation would be enough, the one for twenty million dollars. I've also told [Prime Minister] Andreotti but it's not clear which side
he is on. If things in Italy go a certain way, the Vatican will have to rent a building in Washington, behind the Pentagon. A far cry
from St. Peter's.23
PRIMARY EMPLOYMENT
In addition to the shell game, Calvi remained Sindona's successor as the principal banker for the
heroin trade. Insight into Calvi's position as the mob's consigliere (adviser) was provided on
November 4, 1996, when Francesco Marino Mannoia, the leading pentito (collaborator working with
the authorities) from the Sicilian Mafia, testified in the Andreotti trial. He told the court that Calvi
became the key figure in laundering heroin revenue for the American Mafia after the arrest warrant
for Sindona had been issued by the Italian financial police in 1976. The heroin, according to
Mannoia, continued to be sent to the Gambino family of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The Gambinos
deposited large sums of their earnings in the banks controlled by Calvi for cleansing by the IOR.
Eventually, the money was used by the American mob to purchase hotels, land, and financial
companies in Florida and the island of Aruba.24
Gelli, Mannoia said, remained the principal figure for the Sicilian Mafia. This fact, he said, was
evidenced by the case of Stefano Bontade, who regularly oversaw the refinement of one thousand
kilograms of heroin that flowed into his laboratory from the Balkan route. Bontade's share of the
profits for each shipment was $150 million.25 This money, according to Mannoia, was delivered to
Gelli, who used a string of Sicilian banks and Banco Ambrosiano to funnel the cash to the central
laundry (that is, the Vatican).26
The day after Mannoia spilled his guts, his mother, sister, aunt, and two uncles were murdered
within their homes in Bagheria, Sicily.27 Mannoia's testimony concerning Calvi was confirmed by
other Mafia informants, including Antonio Giuffrè, who had enjoyed a close relationship with
Sicilian capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) Pippo Calò.28
STIBAM SIDEBAR
Thanks to the new heroin network, all of the profits of Stibam International were recycled through
Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi also handled all of the foreign currency exchanges for the company.29
Stibam began to receive strange guests, including Thomas Angioletti, an agent with the US Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA). It also entered into major business transactions with a
mysterious American named Garth Reynolds, who maintained an office in London. Reynolds gained
access to an incredible array of weapons that he supplied to Stibam, including Cobra helicopters fully
loaded with rockets, antitank guns, incendiary rockets, and RPG-7 rocket launchers.30 He was
arrested in Los Angeles in 1980, and, like a true spook, disappeared forever from the United States
criminal justice system.31
AN UNTIMELY AUDIT
So much money pouring out of the country into mysterious offshore companies with weird sounding
names didn't go unnoticed. In June 1978, a twelve-man team from the Bank of Italy launched a probe
of Banco Ambrosiano, only to discover that they had wandered into a bewildering labyrinth of shady
financial transactions. Calvi refused to provide the team with requested information concerning the
eight companies that had received hundreds of millions in loans or about the branches of the bank in
Luxembourg, Nassau, and Managua. He claimed that such disclosures would breach the banking
regulations of other countries. Eventually, the team asked for more investigators to unravel the puzzle.
But even twenty auditors pouring over the books day after day for six months could not discern the
true nature of the subsidiaries and shell companies, let alone the ground plan of the financial
scheme.32
On November 17, 1978, the examiners produced a five-hundred-page report that was painfully
abstruse. But the overall verdict that the bank was “not at all satisfactory” in its operations sent
shivers throughout Italy's financial community. The auditors added this recommendation: “There is a
clear need to cut back the network of subsidiaries which Ambrosiano has created abroad. They [the
bank officials] must also be forced to provide more information and figures about their real assets, to
avoid the risk that a possible liquidity crisis on their part might also affect the Italian banks, with all
the unfavorable consequences that might entail.”33
The report devoted more than twenty-five pages to the torturous relationship between Banco
Ambrosiano and the Vatican Bank. It stated: “Independently of its position as stockholder, the IOR is
bound by strong interest connections to the Ambrosiano group, as is demonstrated by its [the
Vatican's] constant presence in some of Ambrosiano's most meaningful and delicate operations.”34
A WARNING TO THE POPE
When the news of the report was leaked to the public, shares of Ambrosiano fell 30 percent on the
Milan exchange and a horde of panicked depositors descended on the once-staid bank to withdraw
their savings.35 The findings garnered the attention of the financial police, who opted to take a closer
look at the books of Banco Ambrosiano and the dealings of Roberti Calvi. The new investigation,
headed by Judge Luca Mucci, prompted Calvi to move the base of his international operations even
deeper within the heart of Latin America. In 1980, he opened Banco Ambrosiano de America del Sud
in Buenos Aires.36
As soon as the new investigation got underway, Beniamino Andreatta, Italy's treasury minister, met
with Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican's secretary of state, to urge the severance of all ties
between the Holy See and Calvi. Casaroli presented these concerns to the Holy Father. But so much
money was pouring into the IOR and Solidarity that John Paul II opted to ignore the warning.37
SETBACKS
Matters beyond the control of Calvi, the CIA, and the Vatican also served to undermine the shell
game. Throughout 1979, interest rates throughout the world soared to astronomical heights, making it
more expensive for Banco Ambrosiano to obtain money for the loans. The Ambrosiano officials,
prompted by the nagging concerns of board member Roberto Orson and deputy chairman Roberto
Rosone, began to demand definite proof from Calvi that the Vatican maintained control over the eight
ghost companies. The situation worsened as the dollar rose sharply against the lira, diminishing the
worth of the lira-denominated bank shares.38
In July 1980, after the Guardia di Finanza uncovered evidence of “illegal capital exportation, bank
documentation forgery, and fraud,” Judge Mucci ordered Calvi to surrender his passport and warned
him that criminal charges would be on the way.39 The banker was not amused. He needed his
passport. He intended to meet with the oil-rich Arabs to secure a bailout.40
Thanks to the intervention of Gelli and leading members of P2 who provided bribes to Ugo Zilletti
and other members of the Superior Court of the Magistrature,41 Calvi managed to recover his
passport, just in time to travel to Nassau, where he forged a link between Ambrosiano Overseas and
Artoc, a leading financial institution of the Arab world. A temporary agreement between the two
firms was signed in London. Calvi now believed that his hope for salvation would come from the
Muslim world. His faith was misplaced. The millions never materialized.42
THE UNANSWERED LETTER
On January 21, 1981, a group of Milanese shareholders in Banco Ambrosiano, fearing that the
balloon would burst and their shares would be worthless, wrote a long letter to John Paul II, urging
him to investigate the unholy ties between Marcinkus, Calvi, Umberto Ortolani, Gelli, and the huge
flow of cash into the corporations under the “patronage” of the Vatican. The letter, which was written
in Polish so that the pope could easily understand it, stated the following: “The IOR is not only a
shareholder in Banco Ambrosiano, but also an associate and partner of Roberto Calvi. It is revealed
by a growing number of court cases that Calvi stands today astride one of the main crossroads of the
most degenerate Freemasonry (P2) and of Mafia circles, as a result of inheriting Sindona's mantle.
This has been done once again with the involvement of people generously nurtured and cared for by
the Vatican, such as Ortolani, who move between the Vatican and powerful groups in the international
underworld.”43
“APPALLING EFFRONTERY”
John Paul II neglected to give the shareholders the dignity of a response. Instead, in a gesture of cold
indifference to their pleas, the pope elevated Marcinkus to the position of president of the Pontifical
Commission for the State of Vatican City. This position made “the Gorilla” the governor of Vatican
City, in addition to head of the IOR. The promotion was made on September 28, 1981, the third
anniversary of the death of John Paul I. Regarding this “appalling effrontery,” author David Yallop
wrote:
Through his Lithuanian origins, his continual espousal, in fiscal terms, of Poland's needs, and his close proximity to the pope
because of his role as personal bodyguard and overseer of all security on foreign trips, Marcinkus had discovered in the person of
Karol Wojtyła the most powerful protector a Vatican employee could have. Sindona, Calvi, and others like them are, according to
the Vatican, wicked men who have deceived naive, trusting priests. Either Marcinkus has misled, lied to, and suppressed the truth
from Pope John Paul II since October 1978, or the present pope also stands indicted.44
The elevation of Marcinkus was made despite the warnings from Italy's treasury minister, the Bank
of Italy audit, the worsening financial condition of the shell companies, and the circulation of the P2
list, which showed that “the Gorilla” remained a Freemason in violation of canon law. Why John Paul
would make such a promotion at this stage in his pontificate defies all rules of logic, let alone moral
rectitude. One must realize that the pope—not less than common laymen—was aware that Marcinkus
was a principal player in the $1 billion counterfeit securities scam, the collapse of Banca Privata, P2
and the strategy of tension, the Aldo Moro affair, and the mysterious death of his predecessor. The
real postmortem miracle of John Paul II remains the continual concealment of his complicity in high
crimes from the legion of men and women of good faith who have proclaimed him a saint.
NO EXIT
In late January 1981, the Italian government, at the urging of the Bank of Italy, established new
regulations governing foreign interests held by Italian banks. Tight restrictions were now in place for
foreign holding companies of financial institutions that were not banks. Such companies would only
be allowed if their activities could be scrutinized by the Bank of Italy and if they operated in
countries with a proper system of transparency. No names were mentioned in the new regulations, but
the references to Ambrosiano couldn't be clearer.45
Within the Vatican, the pope had responded to his plight with a demand for increased aid to
Solidarity. Within P2, Gelli's reply was a request for $80 million from the shell game to purchase
more Exocet missiles for the Argentines. Within the US intelligence community, the CIA's answer was
a call to Calvi for an increase in cash and munitions to combat the Sandinista's in Nicaragua.46 The
Ambrosiano banker stood on the brink of personal and financial ruin. The game had persisted too long
and the stakes had become too high. The total debt for Ambrosiano hovered at $1.75 billion.47 It was
a debt that no one, including the Vicar of Christ, opted to acknowledge, let alone pay.
CHAPTER 14
THE DESPERATE DON
It was understandable that this most energetic of popes [John Paul II] had
prevaricated about taking on the Curia. There were so many aspects to the problem.
Careerism and promotion were all-important with every seminarian determined to
become a bishop. To move up the ladder required finding a protector, it also required
embracing “the five dont's”: “Don't think. If you think, don't speak. If you speak,
don't write. If you think, and if you speak, and if you write, don't sign your name. If
you think, and if you speak, and if you write, and if you sign your name, don't be
surprised.” Moving up the ladder with the help of a protector also frequently required
participating in an active homosexual relationship. Estimates of practicing
homosexuals in the Vatican ranged from twenty to over fifty per cent. The village also
housed factions including sects of Opus Dei members, and Freemasons, and fascists.
The latter could be found particularly among priests, bishops and cardinals from
Latin America.
David Yallop, The Power and the Glory
As soon as the noose began to tighten around Calvi's neck, Michele Sindona left his suite at the Hotel
Pierre and walked to the Tudor Hotel on the corner of Forty-Second Street and Second Avenue,
where he met Rosario Spatola. The two men drove to the Conca d'Oro Motel on Staten Island, where
Sindona donned a white wig, glued yellow chicken skin to his nose, and changed into a garish yellow
suit. He packed a shoulder bag, containing files and a list of five hundred names of P2 members in
prominent positions, and headed off to Kennedy Airport, where he boarded a plane for Vienna with a
passport bearing the name Joseph Bonamico. The passport had been provided to him by Johnny and
Rosario Gambino.1
The date was August 2, 1979.
It was time for the don to get out of town. His fight to stay out of prison had failed. He was on $3
million bail and was obliged to report daily to the US Marshal's office at 500 Pearl Street. His
appeals for help to David Kennedy, Richard Nixon, US ambassador John Volpe, and CIA officials
had gone unanswered.2
Sindona knew he had to return to Italy in order to gather support for his
forthcoming trial in Manhattan. But there was a problem. He already had been sentenced to three and
a half years imprisonment in Italy and was wanted on a host of new charges, including the murder of
Giorgio Ambrosoli.3
He had no option except to stage his own kidnapping.
Upon arriving in Vienna, Sindona was met by several of his P2 brothers and escorted to Palermo,
where he came under the care of Joseph Miceli Crimi, the mysterious American Italian plastic
surgeon.4
Johnny Gambino, Rosario Spatola, and Vincenzo Spatola soon joined the former Vatican
banker in Sicily. For the duration of their stay, Johnny never left his don's side. Day after day, he
would whisk Sindona away in a black Mercedes for conversations lasting seven or eight hours and
then take him to the Charlestown in downtown Palermo for dinner.5
THE RANSOM NOTE
On August 9, 1979, the press got word that Sindona had been kidnapped by the “Proletarian
Committee for the Eversion (sic) of an Improved Justice.”6
The ransom note followed with a demand
of 30 billion lire for his release. If the money was not provided, the kidnappers were set to release
the list of five hundred names and assorted papers they had removed from the don's shoulder bag.
News of the list struck terror in the hearts of the Italian and American political leaders, industrialists,
and military officials who had been engaged in heroin dealing, arms trafficking, money laundering,
and a host of other nefarious activities with the man “who had saved the lira.”7
But the note was far
more jarring to the CIA since the assorted papers contained confidential memorandum outlining the
celebrated Mafiosi's long association with the Agency.8
THE DON'S DELUSIONS
The don had become delusional. He believed that this threat would serve to restore him to his former
position of power within the Vatican, the CIA, and the Italian financial community. The prison
sentence, he believed, would be quashed; all outstanding charges against him would be dropped. His
Italian holdings would be returned to him and US officials would come forth to say that he was a
noble figure, who had spent his career fighting the advancement of the godless forces of communism.9
Sindona also remained delusional in his belief that US military and intelligence officials, including
Rear Admiral Max K. Morris and CIA Director Stansfield Turner, would come to his aid by telling
the world that he had been engaged in an effort to make Sicily the fifty-first state and that all legal
action against him by the US Department of Justice must come to an immediate end.10
THE MASTER CALLS
As soon as he learned of Sindona's demands, Gelli summoned Dr. Miceli Crimi and Sindona to his
villa in Arezzo, where he warned the fugitive don of the dire consequences awaiting him if he broke
his solemn vow to P2 by revealing anything about his Masonic brothers or violated the code of
omertà that bound him to the Sicilian Men of Respect.11 He would suffer an ignoble death, his image
would be burned to ashes by his compatriots, and his family would not be spared from the wrath of
his enemies. Sindona must return to the United States and face trial. Gelli would gain the intervention
of the Holy Father on his behalf and testimony would be provided that he had acted in accordance
with the will of Holy Mother Church and the forces of democracy.12 Duly chastised, Sindona
acquiesced to the Worshipful Master's directives.
SINDONA'S RETURN
It was just as well. The kidnapping ruse was rapidly unraveling. Vincenzo Spatola, Rosario's younger
brother, was arrested in Rome on October 9, when he delivered a letter to Rodolfo Guzzi, Sindona's
lawyer. The letter contained a request from Sindona for a passport and “a large amount of money.”
After interrogating Vincenzo, the Roman police realized that the celebrated don had not been
kidnapped by the Proletarian Committee for Eversion or any other fanciful chapter of the Red
Brigades. Instead, Sindona was safe and secure with the members of the Gambino crime family.13
Sindona, however, had to save face. For this reason, on September 25, he allowed Dr. Miceli
Crimi to shoot him in the left thigh on an examining table within the physician's office in Palermo. The
wound was treated, and, on October 13, Sindona, again donning the wig and the chicken skin,
boarded an airplane and returned to New York.14 Upon arriving on Sunday morning, he called Marvin
Frankel, his US attorney, with the good news: The Vatican was about to come to his rescue. He soon
would be recognized as a great champion in the war against the godless forces of communism.
What's more, the attempt at blackmail was a partial success. Calvi had coughed up the 300 billion
lire in black funds for his silence. The staged kidnapping, resulting in the wound in his thigh, kept
Sindona from an immediate prison sentence for violating the terms of his bail.15
PROMISE RENEGED
Back in the loving arms of his wife, children, and mistress, Sindona made preparations for his trial,
which was set to begin on February 6, 1980, before Judge Thomas Poole Griesa. The judge was very
impressed that three holy men from the Vatican—Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, Cardinal Giuseppe
Caprio, and Cardinal Sergio Guerri—would be testifying on Sindona's behalf.16 As it would be
impossible under Vatican policy for such esteemed dignitaries to appear personally in a New York
courtroom, the judge decreed that their testimony should be taken in Rome at the US Embassy, where
they also could be questioned by Frankel and Assistant US Attorney John Kenney.17
One day before the taping was to take place, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who remained the
secretary of state for the Holy See, intervened to inform Sindona's defense team and the federal
prosecutors that the Vatican officials would not be providing their statements. “They would create a
disruptive precedent,” Casaroli said. “There has been so much unfortunate publicity about these
depositions. We are very unhappy about the fact that the American government does not give
diplomatic recognition to the Vatican.”18
The Vatican had betrayed Sindona.
A NOTE FROM PHIL
On February 11, 1980, after learning that the Vatican had reneged on its promises to Sindona, Phil
Guarino, a former Roman Catholic priest and a director of the Republican National Committee, wrote
the following in a letter to Gelli: “Caro, carissimo Gelli, how I'd like to see you. Things are getting
worse for our friend. Even the Church has abandoned him. Two weeks ago, everything looked good,
when the cardinals said they would testify in Michele's favor. Then suddenly the Vatican secretary of
state, S. E. Casaroli, forbade S. E. Caprio and Guerri to testify for him.”19 Guarino allegedly had
strong ties to the Sicilian Mafia and the US intelligence community. He resided in Washington, DC,
where he operated an upscale restaurant.20
Gelli provided the following reply on April 8: “My experience tells me that for certain classes of
humanity it is a natural law to help the strongest and wound the weakest. Thus not even the Church
could keep from denying the man it once called ‘the one sent by God.’”21
SENTENCING AND
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE
On March 27, 1980, Sindona was convicted of sixty-eight counts of fraud, misappropriation of bank
funds, and perjury. While awaiting sentencing, he was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional
Center in Manhattan. On May 13, 1980, two days before he was to be sentenced, Sindona attempted
suicide by slitting his wrist, ingesting digitalis, and swallowing an unknown quantity of Darvon and
Librium (a painkiller and an anti anxiety drug, respectively). He survived despite his refusal to
cooperate with the attending physicians. On June 13, the man who was known as “St. Peter's banker”
was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and fined $207,000.22
GELLI TRIUMPHANT
While Sindona remained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Licio Gelli made trips to Langley
to meet with George H. W. Bush, the director of the CIA; William Casey, the manager of the Reagan/Bush
campaign, who later became the CIA director; and CIA special agent Donald Gregg. The
Worshipful Master was involved in planning the October Surprise—a covert effort to delay the
release of the fifty-two American hostages held in Iran by the Ayatollah Khomeini until after the
election. The meeting had been arranged by Bush, who had become an honorary member of P2 in
1976.23 This strategy, which Bush called “the White Rose” in honor of Gelli's favorite flower, would
serve to ensure Jimmy Carter's defeat.24 The Ayatollah was enticed to participate in the delayed
release by shipments of arms for use in his war against Iraq that were provided, courtesy of Gladio
and Gelli, by Stibam.25
Gelli's efforts eventually resulted in a deal in which the Reagan Administration sold weapons to
the Ayatollah, including 2,004 TOW antitank missiles and 18 HAWK antiaircraft missiles with 240
HAWK spare parts. The money from the sales went to aid the Contras—a right-wing guerrilla army in
Nicaragua—who were seeking to overthrow the left-wing government of the Sandinista Junta of
National Reconstruction. The Iran-Contra affair occurred in the midst of a US-imposed arms embargo
against Iran and the shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Iraq as a “good-will
gesture.”26
In January 1981, Gelli became an honored guest at Reagan's inauguration. After the celebration, his
lodge received a gift of $10 million in unvouchered CIA funds.27 That night, as he swirled around the
dance floor at the inaugural ball, the P2 master had no idea that within a matter of weeks he would
become a wanted fugitive.
THE RAID AT AREZZO
Knowing that Sindona's kidnapping was a hoax, the Sicilian police began to question Dr. Joseph
Miceli Crimi. They knew that Miceli Crimi had sheltered Sindona during his “captivity” and that the
doctor made a four-hundred-mile trip to Arezzo in the midst of the ordeal. Miceli Crimi said that he
had made the trip to see a dentist. But his story quickly unraveled and the truth about the summons
from Gelli began to emerge. Miceli Crimi was indicted for being a member of the Mafia and for
participating in the bogus kidnapping. As soon as he was placed on a stool, the good doctor testified
against Johnny Gambino, Rosario Spatola, Vincenzo Spatola, and seventy-two other Mafiosi who
were involved in the plot.28
On March 17, 1981, the police raided Gelli's villa at Arezzo, where they found the official
membership list of P2, 426 incriminating files on leading Italian figures, and top secret government
reports. Within the office of Gelli's mattress company in nearby Castiglion Fibocchi, the Italian police
uncovered evidence showing that the P2 master had been the puppet master of the strategy of tension,
which had resulted in 356 people killed and more than 1,000 wounded.29 Warrants were issued for
Gelli's arrest. But the Worshipful Master was not to be found. He had fled to South America.30
STASHED WITH CASH
At the end of April 1981, the Trapani Mafia, based on the west coast of Sicily, had a problem. Their
lawyer, Francesco Messina Denaro, was a fugitive from justice. He had been safeguarding their
monthly earnings from the heroin trade, which amounted to $6 million. The money had to be moved to
an undetectable location before the police, who were seeking Denaro, stumbled upon it. They knew
the right location and the right person to pick up the bag. The Trapanis flew to Rome, “to the office of
public notary Alfano,” where they handed a suitcase filled with the cash to their trusted old friend
Archbishop Paul Marcinkus.31 It was late at night but the Vatican banker was pleased to make the
deposit.
Conducting business as usual, Marcinkus did not appear concerned over the fate of Sindona, the
flight of Gelli, and the plight of Calvi. Nor was he flustered by the arrests of Massimo Spada and
Luigi Mennini, the former and present lay delegatos of the IOR for their complicity in looting the
Banca Privata Finanziaria.32 His composure in the face of the worsening circumstances engulfing the
Vatican Bank may have been due to his awareness that a plan was in the works to deal with John Paul
II, who had become a primary cause of setbacks within Operation Gladio.
Next....
The Pope Must Die
footnotes
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE SHELL GAME
1. Nick Squires, “God's Banker Linked to Pablo Escobar,” Telegraph (UK), November 26, 2012,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9703479/Gods-banker-linked-to-Pablo-Escobar.html (accessed May 21, 2014).
2. Ibid.
3. David Yallop, In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I (New York: Bantam Books, 1984), p.
311.
4. Katherine Reinhard, “Authorities Had Their Eye on Cocaine Ring Suspect,” Morning Call, August 17, 1986,
http://articles.mcall.com/1986-08-17/news/2538181_1_air-america-drug-smuggling-federal-investigators (accessed May 21, 2014).
5. Ron Devlin, “Drug Smuggler's Pocono Estate Seized,” Morning Call, January 28, 1990, http://articles.mcall.com/1990-01-
28/news/2732952_1_drug-cartel-seized-federal-drug (accessed May 21, 2014).
6. For a full account of Rik Luytjes and his drug-smuggling operation, see Berkeley Rice, Trafficking: The Boom and Bust of the
Air America Cocaine Ring (New York: Scribner's, 1990).
7. Philip Willan, The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC, 2003), chapter
three, Kindle edition.
8. Ibid.
9. Malachi Martin, Rich Church, Poor Church (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1984), pp. 68–69.
10. Paul Lewis, “Italy's Mysterious, Deepening Bank Scandal,” New York Times, July 28, 1982,
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican117.htm (accessed May 21, 2014).
11. Penny Lernoux, In Banks We Trust (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 206.
12. Yallop, In God's Name, p. 287.
13. Lernoux, In Banks We Trust, p. 208.
14. Ibid.
15. Rupert Cornwell, God's Banker: An Account into the Life and Death of Roberto Calvi (London: Victor Gollancz, 1984), pp.
69–71.
16. Yallop, In God's Name, p. 280.
17. Ibid., p. 281.
18. Lernoux, In Banks We Trust, p. 196.
19. David Yallop, The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican (New York: Carroll and Graf,
2007), p.118.
20. Eric Frattini, The Entity: Five Centuries of Secret Vatican Espionage (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004), p. 324.
21. Ibid., p. 326.
22. Yallop, Power and the Glory, pp. 169–70.
23. Ibid., p. 138.
24. Willan, Vatican at War.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Peggy Polk, “Informers Expose the Sicilian Mafia,” Chicago Tribune, February 6, 1994, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-
02-06/news/9402060128_1_gaspare-mutolo-sicilian-mafia-bosses (accessed May 21, 2014).
28. Willan, Vatican at War.
29. Martin A. Lee, “On the Trail of Turkey's Terrorist Grey Wolves.” Consortium News, 1998,
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story33.html.
30. Jonathan Marshall, “Italian Imbroglio,” Parapolitics, vol. 2, no. 1, 1983, http://www.scribd.com/doc/63837545/Parapolitics-USAv-2-no-1
(accessed May 21, 2014).
31. Ibid.
32. Cornwell, God's Banker, pp. 90–91.
33. Ibid., p. 92.
34. Jose Manuel Vidal, “The Strange Death of a Pope,” 4, Comunidad de Ayala, September 14, 2003,
http://www.comayala.es/Libros/ddc2i/ddc2e04.htm (accessed May 21, 2014).
35. Lewis, “Italy's Mysterious, Deepening Bank Scandal.”
36. Martin, Rich Church, Poor Church, p. 68.
37. Yallop, In God's Name, p. 287.
38. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 121.
39. Vidal, “Strange Death of a Pope.”
40. Ibid., p. 127.
41. Willan, Vatican at War.
42. Cornwell, God's Banker, pp. 127–28.
43. Yallop, In God's Name, pp. 296–97.
44. Ibid., pp. 294–95.
45. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 129.
46. Yallop, In God's Name, p. 312.
47. Cottrell, Gladio, p. 228.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE DESPERATE DON
1. Luigi DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker: Michele Sindona (New York: Franklin Watts, 1983), p. 243.
2. Penny Lernoux, In Banks We Trust (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 188.
3. David Yallop, In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I (New York: Bantam Books, 1984), pp.
277, 281.
4. Philip Willan, The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC, 2003), Kindle
edition.
5. Ibid.
6. DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker, p. 246.
7. Yallop, In God's Name, p. 134.
8. Martin A. Lee, “Banking for God, the Mafia and the CIA,” Mother Jones, July/August 1983,
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1983/07/banking-god-the-mob-and-cia (accessed May 21, 2014).
9. Ibid., p. 282.
10. Ibid.
11. Luigi DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker, p. 74.
12. Ibid.
13. Nick Tosches, Power on Earth: Michele Sindona's Explosive Story (New York: Arbor House, 1986), p. 199.
14. Ibid., p. 208.
15. David Yallop, In God's Name, p. 283.
16. Nick Tosches, Power on Earth, p. 217.
17. Ibid.
18. David Yallop's The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican (New York: Carroll and Graf,
2007), p. 81.
19. Tosches, Power on Earth, p. 219.
20. Richard Drake, The Aldo Moro Murder Case (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995 ), p. 106.
21. Tosches, Power on Earth, p. 219.
22. DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker, p. 258.
23. Barbara Honegger, October Surprise (New York: Tudor Communications, 1989), pp. 229–44. Ms. Honegger had served the
Reagan Administration as a researcher and policy analyst.
24. Leonardo Servadio and Mark Burdman, “Italian Probe Could Mean New Woes for Lt. Col. Oliver North,” Civil Intelligence
Association, May 1988, http://ncoic.com/p2masons.htm (accessed May 21, 2014).
25. Honegger, October Surprise, pp. 229–44.
26. Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne, The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History (New York: New Press, 1993), p.
214.
27. Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott, and Jane Hunter, The Iran Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in
the Reagan Era, 1984, http://www.whale.to/b/scott_b1.html (accessed May 21, 2014).
28. DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker, pp. 260–61.
29. Philip Willan, Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy (London: Constable, 1991), p. 12.
30. Rupert Cornwell, God's Banker: An Account of the Life and Death of Roberto Calvi (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1984),
pp. 134–35.
31. David Yallop, The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican (New York: Carroll and Graf,
2007), p. 119.
32. Cornwell, God's Banker, p. 126.
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