The Vatican went on trial in a London court on Wednesday as a British financier sought to clear his name after being convicted by a Vatican tribunal in a London property case.Raffaele Mincione was convicted by a Vatican tribunal following an investigation into a 350-million-euro Vatican investment in a London property.But Mincione, who remains free pending an appeal, lodged a counter civil claim against the Holy See’s secretariat of state at London’s High Court, insisting he acted in good faith.
Lawsuits filed in the U.S. to hold the Vatican liable for clergy sexual abuse failed since the Holy See was able to claim it enjoyed immunity as a sovereign state. But the British court allowed Mincione’s case to proceed because it involved a commercial transaction, which is not typically covered by sovereign immunity claims.The case concerns the Vatican’s decision in 2013-2014 to invest in a Mincione fund to acquire a stake in a former Harrod’s warehouse in London.
They alleged that Mincione, whose fund had purchased the Harrod’s warehouse at auction in 2012 for 129.5 million pounds plus eight million pounds in costs, had inflated the property’s value to 230 million pounds when Vatican invested in it. The prosecutors accused Torzi of then extorting the Vatican for another 15 million euros to cede control of the building, after the Vatican realized it still didn’t own it.