Prosecutor cites risky investments as 'grave' violations, in closing of Vatican financial case

abcnews.go.com:

The Vatican prosecutor has given his closing arguments in the Vatican's big financial trial

VATICAN CITY — VATICAN CITY (AP) —

The Vatican prosecutor insisted Tuesday that his indictments of 10 people, including a cardinal, for alleged financial crimes held up under two years of testimony, criticism and defense motions, as he began closing arguments in a trial that exposed the unseemly financial underbelly of the Holy See.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi opened two weeks of hearings to summarize his case by accusing officials in the Vatican secretariat of state of committing “grave violations” of internal norms and canon law when they decided in 2012 to start investing the pope’s money in “highly speculative” investments, including in a 350 million euro (US $390 million) London real estate venture.

“There’s not a single faithful (Catholic) who has donated a euro thinking that this euro would be used in speculative operations,” Diddi said, alleging that such canonical violations amounted to criminal abuse of office and embezzlement.

The sprawling Vatican trial originated in the London deal but grew to include two other tangents implicating Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once a papal contender and the first-ever cardinal to stand trial in the Vatican court: One involved allegations he donated some 125,000 euros in Vatican money to a Sardinian charity run by his brother; the other involved allegations he used some 575,000 euros in Vatican funds to double pay a self-styled security analyst ransom fees to help free a nun held hostage by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.

The ransom payments, in particular, exposed inner financial and diplomatic workings of the Vatican that were never supposed to come to light. Together with evidence