Italy indicts four people for murder of ‘God’s Banker’

FOUR people were indicted yesterday on murder charges in connection with the death of Italian financier Roberto Calvi, the man known as ‘God’s Banker’ because of his close ties to the Vatican, whose body was found hanging in London in 1982, reports said.

Businessman Flavio Carboni; his ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinzig, and two men with alleged ties to the Mafia, Pippo Calo and Ernesto Diotallevi, will stand trial in October on murder charges, the Italian news agencies ANSA and Apcom said.

Calvi was dubbed “God’s Banker” because of his ties with the Vatican’s bank and its former top official, American Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus.

Calvi’s body was found under a London bridge on June 18, 1982, his suit pockets stuffed with five kilos of rocks and bricks, along with a falsified passport and £6,000 in various currencies, authorities stated.

He was found dead just days after the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, where he was president and in which the Vatican’s bank held a significant stake in what was Italy’s biggest post-war banking scandal.

Banco Ambrosiano fell apart following the disappearance of £687 million. The Vatican’s bank agreed to pay £132 million to the Italian bank’s creditors, but denied any wrongdoing. Marcinkus also denied wrongdoing.

In July 2003, Italian prosecutors issued a report concluding that Calvi did not commit suicide, but was killed.