A well-known anti-money laundering specialist is leaving the board of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg. The move follows his indictment by the Holy See in a soured $150 million London property deal.
René Bruelhart is leaving the board of the Swiss regional lender, effective immediately, for personal reasons, it said in a statement (in German) on Thursday. The 49-year-old Swiss lawyer-crimefighter was indicted by Vatican prosecutors seven weeks ago in a probe which snared Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu.
The affair centers on Becciu, who was effectively forced out by Pope Francis last year. Bruelhart oversaw the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, AIF, when, Vatican investigators allege, it «overlooked the anomalies of the London transaction – of which it had immediately been informed – especially considering the wealth of information acquired as a result of intelligence activity».
Trial Adjourned
The bank didn't mention the issue in its brief statement on Bruelhart, who denies wrong-doing. The Vatican alleges that Bruelhart's and then-AIF director Tommaso di Ruzza's involvement in the London property deal «seriously violated the basic rules governing supervision» and implicitly enabled wrong-doing by others.
The trial, which focuses on eight other people besides Becciu and Bruelhart, was sets for July but later adjourned to October. Hypi Lenzburg had backed Bruelhart, who has sat on its board for five years. The two-year-old probe is tinged by a Vatican turf war between the Holy See's bank and the AIF (it is now called the ASIF), which Bruelhart led until 2019.
