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Even before the Banco Ambrosiano affair, though, Marcinkus had been touched by financial scandal. In 1973 Italian-American Financier Michele Sindona sold two companies to Calvi for what was considered the greatly inflated price of $100 million. According to Giorgio Ambrosoli, the court-appointed liquidator of the Sindona empire at the time, Sindona paid a $5.6 million commission as part of the deal to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker." Official Italian sources have confirmed that Ambrosoli was refer ring to Marcinkus and Calvi. It is still not clear why the two allegedly received this money.
The investigation of the Sindona payoffs has been stymied by Ambrosoli's murder. In 1979, only hours after talking to U.S. authorities about the commission deal, he was shot to death by three men in the street outside his home. One year ago, Sindona was charged with instigating Ambrosoli's murder, and an Italian American named William J. Arico, 46, was said to be one of the men who actually carried out the killing. Last month the FBI arrested Arico, who is reputed to be a hired Mafia gunman, in Philadelphia. Italy has asked for his extradition.
Effects of the Italian bank scandal have quickly rippled through the Western financial community. Last week the assets of Banco Ambrosiano's Luxembourg subsidiary were frozen after two British banks called loans totaling $125 million. That, in turn, has put in jeopardy up to $400 million in loans held by some 250 banks, including Bank of America and
Manufacturers Hanover. The Gotthard Bank, a small Swiss bank, was immediately endangered because 45% of its shares are held by the Luxembourg subsidiary of Banco Ambrosiano. Officials of the Gotthard Bank are now looking for someone to buy the Ambrosiano stock.
Whatever the outcome of the current investigation, international financiers hope the scandal will prompt the Vatican to reform and open up the operations of its bank. Italian Treasury Minister Beniamino Andreatta has long urged the Vatican to conduct its financial affairs in pub lic. Says he: "As a Catholic, I am against this strange, secret, uncontrolled, scandal-filled administration." Andreatta and many Italian moneymen do not think that the Vatican should even be in the banking business. Says he: "It is silly for the clergy to manage directly a financial institution." The peculiar relationship between the Vatican and international high finance may not survive the current scandal.
— By Alexander L. Taylor III. Reported by Barry Kalb/Rome