This led to a suggestion in some quarters that Calvi was murdered as a masonic warning because of the symbolism associated with the word "Blackfriars". Ĭalvi was a member of Licio Gelli's illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), who referred to themselves as frati neri or "black friars". Calvi had five bricks in his pockets and had in his possession about US$14,000 in three different currencies. A postal clerk was crossing London's Blackfriars Bridge at 7:30 am on Friday, 18 June and noticed Calvi's body hanging from the scaffolding beneath. From there, he apparently hired a private plane to London via Zurich. Death Ĭalvi went missing from his Rome apartment on 10 June 1982, having fled the country on a false passport under the name Gian Roberto Calvini, fleeing initially to Venice. Calvi committed the crime of fiscal misconduct, and there was no evidence of church involvement otherwise, so the Vatican was granted immunity. It has never been confirmed whether the Vatican Bank was directly involved in the scandal due to a lack of evidence in the subpoenaed correspondence, which only revealed that Calvi consistently supported the Vatican's religious agenda. In 1984, the Vatican Bank agreed to pay US$224 million to 120 of Banco Ambrosiano's creditors as a "recognition of moral involvement" in the bank's collapse. Much of the money had been siphoned off through the Vatican Bank, which owned shares of Banco Ambrosiano. Banco Ambrosiano collapsed in June 1982 following the discovery of debts between US$700 million and 1.5 billion. Ĭalvi wrote a letter of warning to Pope John Paul II on 5 June 1982, two weeks before the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, stating that such an event would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage." The correspondence confirmed that illegal transactions were common knowledge among the top affiliates of the bank and the Vatican. Sindona died in prison after drinking coffee laced with cyanide. Bad loans and foreign currency transactions led to the collapse of the bank. The controversy surrounding Calvi's dealings at Banco Ambrosiano echoed a scandal in 1974, when the Holy See lost an estimated US$30 million upon the collapse of the Franklin National Bank owned by financier Michele Sindona. His family maintains that he was manipulated by others and was innocent of the crimes attributed to him. During his short spell in jail, Calvi attempted suicide. He was released on bail pending appeal and kept his position at the bank. Calvi was tried in 1981, given a four-year suspended sentence, and fined US$19.8 million for transferring US$27 million out of the country in violation of Italian currency laws. In 1978, the Bank of Italy produced a report on Banco Ambrosiano which found that several billion lire had been exported illegally, leading to criminal investigations. Calvi was the bank's general manager in 1971 and chairman in 1975. Soon he became the personal assistant of Carlo Alessandro Canesi, a leading figure and later president of Banco Ambrosiano. Calvi joined the bank after World War II, but he moved to Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's second largest bank, in 1947. Roberto Calvi's father was the manager of the Banca Commerciale Italiana. 4 Prosecution of Giuseppe Calò and Licio Gelli.
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