• U.S.

Financiers: Going Home the Hard Way

2 minute read
TIME

The thin, gray-haired man flew from New York City aboard TWA Flight 842 in the custody of U.S. marshals, who turned him over to armed Italian police at Milan’s Malpensa Airport. Then he was flown to Rome and whisked to Rebibbia prison, where he now occupies a cell recently vacated by Ali Agca, the Turkish terrorist who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981. With such swift efficiency, the U.S. last week shipped Michele Sindona, 64, home on the day that a new extradition treaty with Italy went into effect.

Sindona had been serving a 25-year sentence at a federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., for fraud in connection with the 1974 collapse of Franklin National Bank. He bought control of the Long Island-based bank and allegedly siphoned off $15 million from it. In Italy, Sindona faces fraud charges resulting from the 1974 failure of his Banca Privata Italiana, part of a financial empire once estimated to be worth $450 million. He has also been accused of ordering the 1 979 murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli, a lawyer appointed to liquidate Banca Privata Italiana. Even if Sindona is convicted in Italy, he must return to the U.S. and complete his prison term before serving time in his home country.

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