Today, a Milan court will determine whether Cecilia Marogna, a self-described intelligence analyst, with links to disgraced former Cardinal and number two at the Secretariat of State in the Vatican Angelo Becciu, should face extradition to them Vatican on embezzlement charges, Nicole Winfield reported for Associated Press.
Vatican prosecutors have accused Marogna of embezzling and misusing Vatican funds, of which her company Logsic was paid at least €575,000 between 2018 and 2019 to help liberate Catholic hostages, much of which apparently went on luxury goods from Prada. Marogna has claimed the funds as 'compensation and reimbursements' for her work. The luxury items were destined for , a designer pocketbook was “maybe for the wife of a Nigerian friend who was in a position to talk to the president of Burkina Faso”, she said.
Arrested in Milan in mid October last year, Marogna was imprisoned for two weeks and released. In a decision that challenged the Vatican's legal authority, Italy's highest court of appeal, the Court of Cassation, ruled that Marogna should not have been arrested prior to a court determining the validity of an extradition.
The investigation into Marogna is part of a wider probe into Secretariat of State's ongoing investigation into the €350 million holding in real estate in central London.
