Roberto Calvi and the International Banking Scandal

Roberto Calvi was a high-profile banker who was at the center of a major international banking scandal. He was the chairman of the Banco Ambrosiano, an Italian bank that was involved in a number of shady dealings.

The scandal involved a massive money laundering scheme that was linked to the Vatican Bank. Calvi's bank had been accused of laundering millions of dollars for the Vatican Bank, which was allegedly used to fund the bank's own operations.

Calvi's involvement in the scandal led to his mysterious death in 1982, which has never been fully explained. His body was found hanging from a bridge in London, and the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear.

The Banco Ambrosiano's collapse in 1982 was a major blow to the Italian banking system, and it led to a number of investigations and lawsuits.

Roberto Calvi's father managed the Banca Commerciale Italiana, Italy's Italian Commercial Bank.

He joined the bank after World War II and moved to Banco Ambrosiano in 1947.

Calvi married in 1952 and had two children.

As his career progressed, he became the personal assistant of Carlo Alessandro Canesi, a leading figure and later president of Banco Ambrosiano.

Calvi took on various roles, becoming the bank's general manager in 1971 and chairman in 1975.

He is featured in the Italian film Il divo, a biography of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, released in 2008.

Roberto Calvi was tried in 1981 for transferring US$27 million out of the country in violation of Italian currency laws.

He was given a four-year suspended sentence and fined US$19.8 million.

Calvi attempted suicide during his short spell in jail.

The controversy surrounding Calvi's dealings at Banco Ambrosiano echoed a scandal in 1974 involving the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.

The Holy See lost an estimated US$30 million in the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.

Bad loans and foreign currency transactions led to the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.

Michele Sindona, the financier who owned the bank, died in prison after drinking coffee laced with cyanide.

Calvi wrote a letter of warning to Pope John Paul II on 5 June 1982, stating that the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions."

The Vatican Bank owned shares in Banco Ambrosiano and much of the money had been transferred through it.

Banco Ambrosiano collapsed in June 1982 following the discovery of debts between US$700 million and 1.5 billion.

The Vatican Bank agreed to pay US$224 million to 120 of Banco Ambrosiano's creditors in 1984.

The Vatican was granted immunity due to a lack of evidence of direct involvement in the scandal.

The investigations into Roberto Calvi's death were a complex and intriguing process. In Italy, the case was initially treated as a suicide, but in 2007, the magistratura reclassified it as an omicidio.

The Italian authorities have been investigating various individuals and groups, including Licio Gelli, accused of being the mastermind behind the murder, and Francesco Pazienza, an ex-agente segreto. However, in 2016, the judge Simonetta D'Alessandro archiviò the case due to lack of evidence.

The British authorities also investigated Calvi's death, initially ruling it a suicide, but later reopening the case due to new evidence. In 2003, a new procedimento legale was opened, and the case remains unsolved to this day.

Here's a list of some of the key players involved in the investigations:

The investigations have revealed a complex web of connections between the Vatican, Cosa Nostra, and the massoneria, but the exact details remain unclear.

The trial of Roberto Calvi's murder began in Rome in 2005, with five individuals charged: Giuseppe Calò, Flavio Carboni, Manuela Kleinszig, Ernesto Diotallevi, and Silvano Vittor.

The trial took place in a specially fortified courtroom in Rome's Rebibbia prison, and after 20 months of evidence, the court ruled that Calvi's death was murder, not suicide.

The defendants were cleared of murdering Calvi on June 6, 2007, due to insufficient evidence, but the court still concluded that Calvi's death was murder.

The initial investigation into Roberto Calvi's death was conducted by the English judiciary, who concluded it was a suicide. A medical-legal examination supported this claim.

However, just six months later, the British Supreme Court overturned the initial verdict due to formal and substantial flaws. The judge who made the original decision was even charged with irregularities.

The case was then transferred to the London City Police, an independent force from Scotland Yard, which remained uninvolved in the investigation.

Not everyone was convinced of the suicide theory, though - Italian author Leonardo Sciascia wrote in 1982 that Calvi had indeed taken his own life, and thought the murder hypothesis was absurd.

Calvi's body was eventually laid to rest in the Drezzo cemetery, a suburb of Colverde in the Como province, near his villa.

Despite the initial conclusion, the case was reopened in England in September 2003.

In July 1991, Sicilian MafiapentitoFrancesco Marino Mannoia claimed that Roberto Calvi became the victim of a contract killing because he had lost money belonging to senior Mafia bosses when Banco Ambrosiano collapsed.

The prosecution of Giuseppe Calò and Licio Gelli began in 1991, with Mannoia's testimony implicating Calò and Gelli in the murder.

According to Mannoia, the killer was Francesco Di Carlo, a mafioso living in London at the time, on the orders of Calò and Gelli.

However, Di Carlo later became a cooperating witness and denied being the killer, but admitted that Calò had approached him to commit the murder.

The killers were allegedly Vaccari and Vincenzo Casillo, both of whom belonged to the Camorra from Naples and were later murdered.

In 1997, Italian prosecutors in Rome implicated Calò in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni, an allegedly mobbed-up Sardinian businessman.

Di Carlo and Ernesto Diotallevi, a member of the Banda della Magliana, were also alleged to be involved in the killing.

In July 2003, Italian prosecutors concluded that the Sicilian Mafia acted in its own interests and to ensure that Calvi could not blackmail them.

Licio Gelli, the master of the P2 lodge, was formally under investigation on charges of ordering Calvi's contract killing in 2005.

The indictment alleged that Calò, Gelli, Diotallevi, Carboni, and Carboni's Austrian girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig ordered the murder to prevent Calvi from using blackmail power against his political and institutional sponsors.

Gelli denied involvement but acknowledged that the financier was murdered, and claimed that the killing was commissioned in the People's Republic of Poland.

However, Gelli's name was not in the final indictment at the trial which started in October 2005.

In 2016, the prosecution of Gelli, Carboni, Pazienza, and others was archived due to lack of evidence.

The investigation suggested that a part of the Vaticano, a part of Cosa Nostra, and a part of the massoneria were involved in the murder.

The Banco Ambrosiano was accused of riciclaggio (money laundering) and financing the Solidarność trade union movement at the request of Pope John Paul II.

The prosecution dropped the case against Gelli in 2009 due to insufficient evidence.

The acquittal of Calò, Carboni, and Diotallevi was confirmed by the Court of Appeals in 2010.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the acquittal in 2011.

Calò is still serving a life sentence on unrelated Mafia charges.