Roberto Calvi

Roberto Calvi (13 April 1920 – 17 June 1982) was an Italian banker, dubbed "God's Banker" (Banchiere di Dio) by the press because of his close business dealings with the Holy See.

He was a native of Milan and was chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in one of Italy's biggest political scandals.

Calvi joined the bank after World War II, but he moved to Banco Ambrosiano, then Italy's second largest bank, in 1947.

He married in 1952 and had two children.

Soon he became the personal assistant of Carlo Alessandro Canesi, a leading figure and later president of Banco Ambrosiano.

Calvi was the bank's general manager in 1971 and chairman in 1975.

The controversy surrounding Calvi's dealings at Banco Ambrosiano echoed a scandal in 1974, when the Holy See lost an estimated US$30 million upon the collapse of the Franklin National Bank owned by financier Michele Sindona.

Bad loans and foreign currency transactions led to the collapse of the bank.

Sindona died in prison after drinking coffee laced with Cyanide.

In 1978, the Bank of Italy produced a report on Banco Ambrosiano which found that several billion lire had been exported illegally, leading to criminal investigations.

Calvi was tried in 1981, given a four-year suspended sentence, and fined US$19.8 million for transferring US$27 million out of the country in violation of Italian currency laws.

He was released on bail pending appeal and kept his position at the bank.

During his short spell in jail, Calvi attempted suicide.

His family maintains that he was manipulated by others and was innocent of the crimes attributed to him.

Calvi's death by hanging in London in June 1982 is a source of enduring controversy and was ruled a murder after two coroners' inquests and an independent investigation.

Calvi wrote a letter of warning to Pope John Paul II on 5 June 1982, two weeks before the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, stating that such an event would "provoke a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions in which the Church will suffer the gravest damage."

The correspondence confirmed that illegal transactions were common knowledge among the top affiliates of the bank and the Vatican.

Banco Ambrosiano collapsed in June 1982 following the discovery of debts between US$700 million and 1.5 billion.

Much of the money had been transferred through the Vatican Bank, which owned shares in Banco Ambrosiano.

Calvi went missing from his Rome apartment on 10 June 1982, having fled the country on a false passport under the name Gian Roberto Calvini, fleeing initially to Venice.

From there, he apparently hired a private plane to London via Zürich.

A postal clerk was crossing London's Blackfriars Bridge at 7:30 am on Friday, 18 June and noticed Calvi's body hanging from the scaffolding beneath.

Calvi had five bricks in his pockets and had in his possession about US$14,000 in three different currencies.

Calvi was a member of Licio Gelli's illegal masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), who referred to themselves as frati neri or "black friars".

This led to a suggestion in some quarters that Calvi was murdered as a masonic warning because of the symbolism associated with the word "Blackfriars".

The day before his body was found, Calvi was stripped of his post at Banco Ambrosiano by the Bank of Italy, and his private secretary Graziella Corrocher jumped to her death from a fifth floor window at the bank's headquarters.

Corrocher left behind an angry note condemning the damage that Calvi had done to the bank and its employees.

Her death was ruled a suicide.

Calvi's death was the subject of two coroners' inquests in London.

The first recorded a verdict of suicide in July 1982.

The Calvi family then secured the services of George Carman, QC.

The second inquest was held in July 1983, and the jury recorded an open verdict, indicating that the court had been unable to determine the exact cause of death.

Calvi's family maintained that his death had been a murder.

In 1984, the Vatican Bank agreed to pay US$224 million to 120 of Banco Ambrosiano's creditors as a "recognition of moral involvement" in the bank's collapse.

It has never been confirmed whether the Vatican Bank was directly involved in the scandal due to a lack of evidence in the subpoenaed correspondence, which only revealed that Calvi consistently supported the Vatican's religious agenda.

Calvi committed the crime of fiscal misconduct, and there was no evidence of church involvement otherwise, so the Vatican was granted immunity.

In 1991, the Calvi family commissioned the New York-based investigation company Kroll Associates to investigate the circumstances of Calvi's death.

Five people were acquitted in Rome in June 2007 of conspiracy to murder Roberto Calvi.

Popular suspicion has linked allegedly corrupt officials of the Vatican Bank, the Sicilian Mafia, and the Continental Freemasonry lodge Propaganda Due to his death.

Roberto Calvi's father was the manager of the Banca Commerciale Italiana.