Banco Ambrosiano: God’s Banker and the Vatican
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Banco Ambrosiano began as a Catholic bank and ended at the centre of one of Europe’s darkest financial scandals. Its collapse connected the Vatican Bank, secret Masonic lodge P2, offshore companies, organised crime and the unresolved murder of chairman Roberto Calvi.
This Veritas Europaea special investigation reconstructs the bank’s rise and collapse using court records, parliamentary inquiries, financial evidence and contemporary reporting. It also examines why the same questions about secrecy, sovereign immunity and financial accountability still confront the Vatican today.
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God’s Banker, Pt.4: The Flight, the Body and the Verdict | PODCAST
Twenty years after Roberto Calvi was found hanging under a London bridge, forensic experts looked at his hands — and found no trace of the bricks he was supposed to have carried.
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God’s Banker, Pt.3: The Machine, the Letters and the Clock | PODCAST
On a single day, the Vatican Bank signed two letters. One told the world the money was good. The other, in secret, said the exact opposite. This is Part Three of our special investigation into Banco Ambrosiano — the episode where we open up the machine.
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God’s Banker, Pt.2: The Sicilian, the Archbishop and the Lodge | PODCAST
A lawyer is shot on his doorstep hours after briefing investigators. A financier dies drinking poisoned coffee in his prison cell. And police raid a villa to find a secret list of 962 names reaching into the top of the Italian state.
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God’s Banker, Pt.1: The Bank, the Bridge and the Body | PODCAST
A meticulous banker vanishes from Italy. Nine days later, he’s found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, his pockets stuffed with cash and bricks. They called him “God’s Banker.”
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Banco Ambrosiano: The Rise, Collapse and Unsolved Murder That Still Shadow the Vatican Bank
A Milanese bank built on a saint’s name lent more than a billion dollars to companies that did not exist. Its chairman ended up hanging under a London bridge. Forty-four years later, the Vatican is back in a courtroom over a strikingly similar deal in London. The same unanswered questions about Banco Ambrosiano are resurfacing all over again.
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