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Former Vatican official Angelo Becciu jailed for five-and-a-half years over corruption scandal | World News<\/p>\n
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The pope’s former deputy secretary of state and nine others have been found guilty in the Vatican’s biggest financial corruption scandal.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Angelo Becciu was convicted of embezzlement on Saturday and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.<\/p>\n
Becciu, the first cardinal prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges and nine other defendants received a combination of guilty verdicts and acquittals among the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a two-and-a-half-year trial.<\/p>\n
The charges against the defendants included embezzlement, corruption, abuse of office, fraud, witness tampering and extortion – with the trial revolving mostly around a luxury building in Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Becciu was the pope’s chief of staff, serving as a key diplomat between 2011 and 2018.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said he respected the sentence but would appeal against it.<\/p>\n
The two-year-long trial, led by jury president and former anti-mafia prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone, centered on the management of the funds of the secretariat of state and the sale of a property on London’s Sloane Avenue paid for with donation funds.<\/p>\n
The former Harrods showroom was bought for \u20ac350m (\u00a3300m), while the real value was just \u20ac210m (\u00a3180m). The botched real estate deal defrauded the Vatican and caused a \u20ac140m loss (\u00a3120m).<\/p>\n
This landmark probe exposed the Vatican’s financial dysfunction and was considered an indication of Pope Francis’ desire to fix the money mismanagement.<\/p>\n
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