Vatican raids home of official in London property probe
Police seize records from Alberto Perlasca over purchase of luxury Chelsea building
The Vatican’s police seized computers and documents from the residence of a senior financial official as part of a probe into the city state’s purchase of a luxury property development in London.
Alberto Perlasca formerly served as head of an administrative office in the Secretariat of State, which led and funded the property deal. A priest, he is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be drawn into a corruption probe involving the alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of funds donated to the Roman Catholic church for the poor.
The raid had been “undertaken pursuant to the investigation into financial and real-estate investments by the Secretariat of State”, the Vatican said in a statement on Tuesday. It follows interrogations of the officials already under investigation, it added.
In October last year Vatican police raided the offices of the Secretariat of State, took away documents linked to the deal, and suspended five officials. “There is corruption, we can see it,” Pope Francis said a month later. The raids showed that efforts to reform the Vatican’s financial management were finally working, he added.
The secretariat invested $200m in a fund controlled by Raffaele Mincione. A London-based fund manager, he then used the money in 2014 to buy a stake in a large office building that he personally owned in the wealthy Chelsea district, at a significantly higher price than he had paid for it in 2012. Mr Mincione has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Perlasca, 59, was directly involved in the London transaction, people with knowledge of the details of the deal have told the FT. In November 2018 he was involved in a deal for the Secretariat of State to buy back the building from Mr Mincione through a Luxembourg-based holding company.
Mr Perlasca was not reachable for comment. Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was his direct superior inside the secretariat when the initial London investment was made, has argued that it is normal for the Vatican to invest in real estate.
Cardinal Becciu denied on Tuesday that money from the so-called “Peter’s Pence”, the annual charitable donations made by Roman Catholics to fund the Church’s work with the poor, was involved in the London deal.
“Peter’s Pence was not affected; an investment was made on a building. It was a good and opportune occasion, which many people envy us for today,” he said. “With Brexit, the value of the building has tripled.”
Last year, Cardinal Becciu called allegations that he had been responsible for misusing the charity money as “slanderous”.
“My conscience is clear and I know I have always acted in the interest of the Holy See and never in my personal one. Those who know me well can attest to that,” he said.