British financier cleared of fraud after legal battle with Vatican
A British financier has been cleared of dishonesty, fraud and conspiracy by an English High Court judge after a historic legal battle with the Vatican.
Lawyers for Raffaele Mincione, a British-Italian businessman, brought the unprecedented legal action against the Vatican to clear his name over his role in the Vatican's £275 million purchase of a former Harrods warehouse in Chelsea, west London.
It is the first time that the Vatican has faced trial in the English courts in its 2,000-year history. It also comes after what has been described as the Vatican's 'trial of the century'.
A previous trial by a Vatican tribunal resulted in the conviction of Mr Mincione and Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu in December 2023 for embezzlement over the property deal.
The Vatican claimed Mr Mincione committed fraud by inflating the price when his companies sold the former Harrods property in 2018 to convert it into luxury apartments.
Prosecutors in the Vatican charged Mr Mincione and 10 others with offences of fraud, embezzlement and abuse of office.
The financier and his legal team claimed that he had been the victim of a 'witch hunt', wherein the legal goalposts were moved to secure his conviction.
He brought the civil action in the High Court as a 'counterblast' to protect his reputation, claiming he had suffered 'prejudice' as a result of the allegations.
In a judgment on Friday following a 17-day trial, Mr Justice Robin Knowles rejected the Vatican's allegations of fraud, dishonesty and conspiracy against the 'claimants', Mr Mincione and his companies.
'The Claimants … have the benefit of a number of findings in this judgment, not the subject of the declarations sought, which reject very serious allegations levelled against them,' said the judge.
'Here I have been able to, and have taken the opportunity to, deal with particular allegations, including particular allegations of dishonesty and particular allegations of conspiracy. The Claimants are entitled to those findings in relation to those allegations.'
The court also rejected the Vatican's contention that there was no genuine negotiation leading up to the 2018 transaction.
It accepted independent expert evidence that the value of £275 million for the Harrods warehouse was a supportable market value for the property before the transaction in 2018.
However, the judge criticised Mr Mincione for failing to act in good faith in their communications with the Vatican, saying Mr Mincione had not been frank about the £275 million valuation and 'was misleading by reference to the sources available to him and in context'.
Mr Justice Knowles added: 'The State [Vatican] had reason to consider itself utterly let down in its experience with the Claimants. The Claimants made no attempt to protect the State from fraudulent bad actors.
'They took no care towards the State and they put their own interests first. The State expected more from professional counterparts, in Mr Mincione and others.'
Mr Mincione said the judgment had 'restored my faith in judicial procedure'.
He added: 'I hope that this recognition will restore my ability to be heard impartially and without prejudice by the authorities and the press.
'I am so proud to be a British citizen and to be part of a country in which justice and due process prevails.
'It is a relief that, after years of being wrongly accused by the Vatican of stealing its money, the English Commercial Court has fully rejected the Vatican's case that I or [his companies] were dishonest or part of any conspiracy or fraud in relation to the negotiation and sale relating to the 60 Sloane Avenue building in 2018.
'I would add this: I am a businessman. The Vatican is a nation State with major financial institutional advisers around it, and its own Vatican Bank and Financial Information Authority. I hope the judgment can lay to rest once and for all claims that I am dishonest, or a fraudster, or a criminal.'
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