Libero Milone

Last updated

Libero Milone is a Netherlands-born Italian businessman who has held high-ranking positions at Deloitte and who was appointed by Pope Francis to be the first auditor-general of the Vatican in 2015 before being forced to resign in 2017.

Contents

Professional life

Milone was born in The Hague and was educated in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. [1] [2]

After starting his career in London, he began a 32-year career with Deloitte and moved to Italy in 1975, where he became a partner in Deloitte's audit department in 1984. He served as Deloitte's Italian human resources leader (1984–1995), then its Europe-wide human resources leader (1991–1995), and finally as its managing director of human resources worldwide, based in New York (1998–2003), and then chairman and CEO of Deloitte in Italy (2003-2007). He was also a member of Deloitte's worldwide management (1998–2003), coordinator of its worldwide aviation interest group (1996-2002), managing director of its worldwide aviation and transport industry group (2002–2007), and member of its worldwide board and governance committee (2003–2007). [1] [3]

From 2008 to 2011, he was a senior advisor and honorary president of Protiviti, a multinational corporate governance and risk management consultancy. He has served as a nonexecutive director of companies including Fiat Industrial s.P.a., the Poltrona Frau Group, Indesit Company, Tofaş, and Falck Renewables. [3] From 2008 to 2011, he also served as a member of the audit committee of the UN World Food Program. [1] [3] In 1975, he became a Chartered Accountant of England and Wales. He became a member of Italy's Istituto Nazionale dei Revisori Contabili in 1995 and of NedCommunity, the Italian Association of Non-Executive Directors and Supervisory Board Members, in 2008. [1]

From 2012 to 2016, he was chairman of his own consulting company, Milone Associates. [3]

Auditor General of the Vatican

On 5 June 2015, Pope Francis named Milone the auditor general of the Vatican, with an expected term of 5 years. [4] Cardinal George Pell, then the head of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, stated that Milone would be answerable only to the pope and free to review the finances and management of any department of the Vatican. [5] Statutes gave Milone “full autonomy and independence”, including the authority to “receive and investigate any reports on anomalous activities” of Vatican entities. [4] Milone was in charge of a staff of around a dozen people. [lower-alpha 1]

In September 2015, several months into his tenure, Milone began to suspect that his office computer had been tampered with. According to Milone, the external company he contacted to inspect the computer reported that it had been targeted for unauthorized access and that Milone's secretary's computer had been infected with spyware.

According to later statements by Milone, he met with Pope Francis every 4–5 weeks from the time of his hiring until April 2016, after which he never met with him again. In September 2016, Milone was told that to see the pope he would have to make a request via the Secretariat of State, but his two written requests went unanswered. [7]

The Vatican gendarmerie raided Milone's office on June 18, 2017, [8] and the following day, he was questioned by Vatican police for 12 hours and compelled to resign his position by Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, then the substitute for general affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State. The charges against him included misusing funds to hire an external company to check the security of his office's computers, carrying out investigations that violated the statutes of his department, and looking into the affairs of high-ranking churchmen without authorization. Becciu and Domenico Giani, then the head of the Vatican gendarmerie, stated that if Milone had not resigned, he would have been prosecuted. [4]

According to later statements by Milone, he sent a letter to Pope Francis asserting his innocence in July 2017, but received no reply, despite believing that the letter had reached the pope. [7]

Milone subsequently told reporters that the allegations were false, that he had been intimidated into resigning and signing a resignation letter prepared in advance, and that he believed he had been ousted because some people in the Vatican wanted to slow down Pope Francis's efforts at financial reform, though he could not give details because of nondisclosure agreements he had signed. In response, Becciu told reporters that Milone's claims were “false and unjustified," saying that Milone had gone "against all the rules and was spying on the private lives of his superiors and staff, including me.” Giani claimed that there had been “overwhelming evidence” against Milone. [4]

In May 2018, the Vatican announced it had dropped all charges against Milone. [9]

In 2019, Milone told the Financial Times that he had been ousted from his position after investigating secret bank accounts, including some linked to a controversial 200 million euro London property investment authorized by Becciu. [10] [11] In 2020, Becciu was forced to resign the privileges of the cardinalate due to his involvement in numerous financial scandals.

Notes

  1. ↑ Different news stories identify Milone's staff as consisting of 12 [6] or 14 [4] people.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dicastery for the Causes of Saints</span> Catholic Church dicastery overseeing the process of canonization of saints

In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of "heroic virtues" and beatification. After preparing a case, including the approval of miracles, the case is presented to the pope, who decides whether or not to proceed with beatification or canonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institute for the Works of Religion</span> Financial institution in Vatican City

The Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial institution that is situated inside Vatican City and run by a Board of Superintendence, which reports to a Commission of Cardinals and the Pope. It is not a private bank, as there are no owners or shareholders; it has been established in the form of a juridical canonical foundation, pursuant to its statutes. Since 9 July 2014, its president is Jean-Baptiste de Franssu. The IOR is regulated by the Vatican's financial supervisory body AIF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Leo Burke</span> American cardinal of the Catholic Church

Raymond Leo Burke is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. A bishop, cardinal, and the incumbent patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, he led the Archdiocese of St. Louis from 2004 to 2008 and the Diocese of La Crosse from 1995 to 2004. From June 2008 to November 2014, he was the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crescenzio Sepe</span> Cardinal and Archbishop of Naples

Crescenzio Sepe is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Naples from 2006 to 2020. He served in the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2001 to 2006. He was made a cardinal in 2001. Before that he spent 25 years in increasingly important positions in the Roman Curia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga</span> Catholic cardinal (born 1942)

Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B. is a Salesian and cardinal of the Catholic Church from Honduras. He is Archbishop Emeritus of Tegucigalpa, is the former President of Caritas Internationalis and served as President of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) from 1995 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domus Sanctae Marthae</span> Guest house in Vatican City

The Domus Sanctae Marthae is a building adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Completed in 1996, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, it is named after Martha of Bethany, who was a sibling to Mary and Lazarus of Bethany. The building functions as a guest house for clergy having business with the Holy See, and as the temporary residence of members of the College of Cardinals while participating in a papal conclave to elect a new pope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Francis</span> Head of the Catholic Church since 2013

Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the 8th century papacy of Syrian pope Gregory III.

The Secretariat of State is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the central papal governing bureaucracy of the Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of State and performs all the political and diplomatic functions of the Holy See. The Secretariat is divided into three sections, the Section for General Affairs, the Section for Relations with States, and, since 2017, the Section for Diplomatic Staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Michael Harvey</span>

James Michael Harvey is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. Trained as a diplomat, he served from 1982 to 1998 in the central administration of the Holy See's Secretariat of State. From 1998 to 2012 Harvey managed the pope's household, first for Pope John Paul II and then for Pope Benedict XVI. He was named a bishop in 1998, an archbishop in 2003, and a cardinal in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domenico Giani</span> Italian security expert (born 1962)

Domenico Giani is an Italian security expert who was the Inspector General of the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the police and security force of Vatican City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Angelo Becciu</span> Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church

Giovanni Angelo Becciu is an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018. On 24 September 2020, he resigned the rights associated with the cardinalate.

The Vatican leaks scandal, also known as Vati-Leaks, is a scandal beginning in 2012 initially involving leaked Vatican documents, exposing corruption; in addition, an internal Vatican investigation has purportedly uncovered the blackmailing of homosexual clergy by individuals outside the Church. Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published letters from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in which he exposed corruption that caused the Holy See to pay increased prices for contracts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beniamino Stella</span> Italian prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1941)

Beniamino Stella is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy from 2013 to 2021; he has been a cardinal since 2014. He began working in the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1970, was made an archbishop in 1987, and served as a nuncio in several countries between 1987 and 2007. He led the Vatican's training program for its diplomats, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, from 2007 to 2013.

The Secretariat for the Economy is a dicastery of the Roman Curia with authority over all economic activities of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.

The Dicastery for Communication is a division (dicastery) of the Roman Curia with authority over all communication offices of the Holy See and the Vatican City State. Its various offices can be accessed through its website. These are the Pope's website and other offices such as Vatican News on internet, the Holy See Press Office, L'Osservatore Romano, Photograph Service, Vatican Radio, Vatican Press, and the Vatican Publishing House. The Pontifical Council for Social Communications has been subsumed into this new Dicastery.

<i>The Dictator Pope</i> Critical biography of Pope Francis

The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy is a biography of Pope Francis authored by the Anglo–French historian H. J. A. Sire under the pseudonym "Marcantonio Colonna". Published initially in Italian, and later in English, the book takes a highly critical view of Pope Francis and his papacy over the Catholic Church. The book contends to be "the inside story of the most tyrannical and unprincipled papacy of modern times," arguing that Pope Francis, while presenting himself as humble, rules over the Church through fear and has allied to some of the most corrupt elements in the Vatican. On its 2017 release, the book reached 4th place on Amazon Kindle's Religion and Spirituality bestseller list.

Praedicate evangelium is an apostolic constitution reforming the Roman Curia and was published and promulgated on 19 March 2022 by Pope Francis; the document took effect on 5 June 2022.

Mauro Rivella is an Italian Roman Catholic cleric who served as the secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) from 2015 to 2020 and since 2022 has been the episcopal vicar for economic affairs in the Archdiocese of Turin.

Events in the year 2022 in Vatican City.

Events in the year 2021 in Vatican City.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Libero Milone". Comunicazione Italiana. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  2. ↑ "Pope's nine-member Council of Cardinals for the reform of the Curia holds its tenth meeting". La Stampa. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Libero Milone". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Pullella, Philip (2017-09-24). "Auditor says he was forced to quit Vatican after finding irregularities". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27.
  5. ↑ "Pope Hires Ex-Deloitte CEO as Auditor in Vatican Bank Clean-Up". NBC News. Reuters. 2015-06-05. Archived from the original on 2021-01-04.
  6. ↑ Pentin, Edward (2018-07-07). "Vatican Withdraws Charges Against Former Auditor General". National Catholic Register. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09.
  7. 1 2 Magister, Sandro (2017-09-24). "The Pope's Armed Guard, According To the Former Vatican Auditor". Settimo Cielo. Archived from the original on 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  8. ↑ Allen, John L. Jr. (2017-06-25). "Mysterious exit of Vatican auditor begs question: Is reform even possible?". Crux. Archived from the original on 2021-01-06.
  9. ↑ Condon, Ed; Flynn, JD (2019-10-14). "Cardinal Becciu at center of Vatican financial investigation". Catholic News Agency. Archived from the original on 2020-01-01. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  10. ↑ "Ousted auditor says he got too close to secret Vatican accounts". Financial Times . 2019-10-03.
  11. ↑ Reguly, Eric (2020-10-09). "The tale of a Vatican financial scandal and two cardinals – one fired, one acquitted". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 2021-01-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.