VATICAN (CNS): The Vatican’s Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF) confirmed continued progress in oversight, reporting and cooperation in its efforts to prevent suspected money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
 
In its annual report for 2017, it confirmed a “robust reporting system and an effective application of the regulatory framework of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.”
 
The agency, which oversees transactions made through the Vatican bank, also continued a “pro-active approach to cooperate and exchange information with its foreign counterparts to fight illicit financial activities,” it said in its report, released to the public on April 27.
 
However, as the AIF continues to hand over reports of suspicious activity to the required authorities, very few cases have led to indictments and prosecutions by the office of the promoter of justice at the Vatican City State’s tribunal.
 
Of reports it has sent to the Vatican tribunal over the years, there was one “successful prosecution of serious criminal offenses” in 2017, it said, referring to the trial of Giuseppe Profiti, the former president of the Holy See-owned Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital.
 
Originally charged with embezzlement, Profiti was found guilty of abuse of office for using donations belonging to the hospital’s foundation to refurbish a Vatican-owned apartment used by Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the former Vatican secretary of state. 
 
Profiti was sentenced to a year in jail and fined €5,000 ($47,600) on the reduced charge, but the sentence was suspended.
 
The report said that ongoing cooperation and exchange of financial intelligence with foreign countries, also led to the arrest of an unnamed subject in their country, where they had already been indicted for non-financial crimes.