- Raffaele Mincione was found guilty of embezzling the Vatican’s money
- The Holy See accused him of inflating the value of a property he sold them
- He has taken the civil case to London’s High Court to clear his name
An Italian businessman has denied being part of a ‘conspiracy’ to inflate the value of a posh London property that was sold to the Vatican City in a fraud case that saw Pope Francis authorise the use of wire-tapping against him.
Raffaele Mincione, a millionaire financier and ex-fiance of Heather Mills, is asking a judge in London’s High Court to rule that he acted in ‘good faith’ in a deal that the Holy See claims saw him dupe them into paying more for a Chelsea property that it was worth.
The Secretariat of State of the Holy See is opposing the claim, alleging the deal ‘involved a fraud’ that cost them £100 million because of the depreciation in value of the property at 60 Sloane Avenue, which used to be a car showroom and garage for Harrods.
Mincione, 58, was one of a string of defendants on trial in Vatican City in December last year accused of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, corruption and abuse of office.
He was found guilty of embezzlement in the historic trial in and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Mincione is currently free pending an appeal and claims the investigation and trial were illegal under international law and breached his human rights, and has taken the civil case to London to get a ruling in his favour.
During the criminal investigation in the Vatican, the Pope used his powers as absolute monarch to pass decrees to authorise phone tapping, email interception and arrest.
Mincione’s phones and computers were seized in Rome and he and his lawyers were followed.
The City financier is now appealing the Vatican ruling and the sentence of five years in prison.
The High Court was told on Wednesday that the body, which is part of the government of the Holy See, purchased a 45% stake in the property in 2014 and bought it out in 2018.
But it claims that Mr Mincione said the building was worth £275 million, which gave a ‘grossly misleading’ account of its value.
Charles Samek KC, representing Mr Mincione and the three fund management companies connected to him, said in written submissions that ‘there was no representation that the ‘market’ value was £275 million’.
He also said that the secretariat was making an ‘incoherent and confused allegation of conspiracy’ and that there was a ‘lack of factual basis’ for its allegations.
The court in London was told that the secretariat had invested more than 200 million US dollars in one of the funds by spring 2014, and in April that year, an opportunity arose to invest in the Chelsea site.
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Four years later, the secretariat bought out the remainder of the property, which it sold for around £180 million in 2022.
But in court documents, Charles Hollander KC, representing the secretariat, said that Mr Mincione told the Holy See that the property was valued at £275 million, which was a ‘clear, unambiguous and false representation’ of its worth.
Mr Hollander said that the higher valuation was made ‘fraudulently’ and was based on ‘a series of hypothetical assumptions which could not logically have been relied upon’.
He said that the ‘true’ valuation of the property was ‘at least £55 million lower’ than £275 million, but the higher figure was used throughout negotiations and was used to calculate a £40 million balancing payment paid to Mr Mincione.
The case is so important to the Vatican that a senior Archbishop will make an appearance in the High Court in an unprecedented move.
In previous British legal proceedings the Vatican has claimed diplomatic immunity and refused to allow officials to appear as witnesses.
But now Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, a close aide to the Pope, will make an appearance in the Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’.
The trial before Mr Justice Robin Knowles is set to conclude in July, with a judgement expected in writing at a later date.