Vatican frees broker as details emerge of costly London deal

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has released from detention an Italian businessman accused of extortion and fraud in a London real estate venture that to date has cost the Vatican more than 350 million euros (nearly $400 million), much of it donations from the faithful.

The Vatican said in a statement Monday that Gianluigi Torzi, who was jailed in the barracks of the Vatican gendarmes on June 6, was granted provisional release after he wrote a lengthy memorandum for prosecutors about his role in the deal.

Via his lawyers, Torzi has denied fleecing the Holy See and said the Vatican investigation is the fruit of a “gross misunderstanding.”

The scandal is the latest to embarrass the Holy See and draw attention to both its financial mismanagement and its criminal justice system, which has been faulted in the past by evaluators for the Council of Europe.

The problems date from 2014, when the Vatican entered into a real estate venture by investing over $200 million in a fund run by another Italian businessman, Raffaele Mincione. The deal gave the Holy See 45% of the luxury building at 60 Sloane Ave. in London’s Chelsea neighborhood.

The money came from the secretariat of state's asset portfolio, which is funded in large part by the Peter’s Pence donations of Catholics around the world for the pope to use for charity and Vatican expenses.

One of Mincione's companies had purchased the building in December 2012 for 129 million pounds, the Vatican said in a June 6 summary of the Vatican's case against Torzi.

The Holy See decided in November 2018 to exit the fund, end its relationship with Mincione and buy out the remainder of the building. It did so after determining that the mortgage was too onerous and that Mincione was losing money for the Vatican in some of the fund’s...