A corresponding report from the FAZ of 10 and according to information from the CIC, is essentially true.
A person familiar with the matter said the incident showed how susceptible the IOR was earlier to tamper and mismanagement.
Since the bank was externally controlled by the European supervisory authority "Moneyval", among other things, and new internal inspection bodies have also moved in, comparable events have no longer been possible today.
The fundamental reforms of the once scandalous bank of the Pope had already begun under Benedict XVI (2005-2013).
Pope Francis continued to advance with Jean-Baptiste Douville de Franssu, who was appointed in July 2014, with Jean-Baptiste Douville de Franssu (61). Since then, it has been regarded as a reputable partner in Italy and in international money transactions.
The million losses, about which the FAZ reported, go back to the time before the change of course at the IOR.
At the beginning of the 2010s, the institute, which was hit in its reputation at the time, had acquired indirect participations in the former building of the Budapest Stock Exchange, together with an Italian pension fund.
In the event of a later sale, a double-digit return beckoned. However, the jewel in the centre of the Hungarian capital was not converted into a valuable property, as promised by the brokers and developers, but is still empty.
According to the FAZ, the EUR 17 million invested in the property by the Vatican Bank were used up by the investment fund's fees and loan interest.
The 50,000-square-metre building has now been resold to a Hungary without the original investors having been involved in the proceeds.
Complaints still pending
The Vatican Bank had considered the real estate developer's actions to be fraudulent and had originally promised further cash inflows of EUR 24 million had no longer approved.
One court in Budapest initially proved the IOR right, the judgments are still pending before other European authorities.
Because the investment fund through which the IOR had invested its money is registered in Malta, the island state in the Mediterranean also became the scene of a procedure.
It is now unclear whether and how the Vatican judiciary will deal with the process.
A principle similar, but much larger bad investment by the Vatican Secretariat of State to a London property in the period 2014 to 2018, led to three-digit million losses – and to a criminal trial before the Vatican court.
In December 2023, a cardinal with Angelo Becciu was sentenced to several years in prison for fraud and embezzlement, which he has not yet run.
The Italian real estate brokers in the London deal have also been condemned, but are still at large, and the appeals are still underway.
If the Vatican justice now brings those responsible at the IOR to justice in the Budapest case and its secular business partners, new exciting details from the nebulous prehistoric Vatican Bank could come to light.