Sindona, Michele

Sindona, Michele

▪ Italian financier
born May 8, 1920, Patti, Sicily, Italy
died March 22, 1986, Voghera, Italy

      Italian financier whose financial empire collapsed amid charges of fraud, bribery, and murder. The scandal also involved the Vatican.

      Educated at the University of Messina, Sindona practiced law in Sicily from 1940 to 1946 and then, from 1946, lived in Milan. Over the next decades, using his talents as a tax and corporate lawyer, he built holdings estimated to total as much as $450 million, scattered about in a maze of banks and industries. One of his master companies was Fasco AG, incorporated in Liechtenstein, through which, by the mid-1960s, he headed companies in nine countries dealing in real estate, steel, paper, food processing, and banking. (He was also thought to have developed links to the Sicilian Mafia.) In 1972 he bought a controlling interest in Franklin New York Corporation, parent company of Franklin National Bank. Two years later the bank collapsed amid revelations of diversions of funds and the bribery of officials in the world of high finance. (A Vatican banker, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was accused of sharing in the illegal dealings but fought extradition from Vatican City. In any event, the Vatican lost millions of dollars in its dealings with Sindona.) In March 1980 a U.S. court convicted Sindona of 65 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and perjury, charging among other things that he had siphoned $45 million in Franklin funds into other companies, mostly in Italy. Meanwhile, Italian authorities were pressing their accusations, holding him responsible for the crash of the giant Banca Privata Finanziaria and other institutions while diverting their capital into other banks and industries abroad. In 1985 he was convicted of fraud, along with 23 other defendants, in a Milanese court.

      Meantime, a lawyer, Giorgio Ambrosoli, had been officially appointed liquidator of the Sindona empire and, in the course of his work, discovered evidence of Sindona's criminal manipulations; he compiled a report of more than 2,000 pages. On July 12, 1979, Ambrosoli was shot dead in front of his Milan home. In 1986 Sindona and an accomplice were convicted of ordering the killing, and Sindona was sentenced to life imprisonment. Two days after sentencing, Sindona was found collapsed in his jail cell, the victim of cyanide poisoning. Whether he committed suicide or was murdered was unknown, but shortly before dying he was quoted as saying, “They are afraid that I could reveal some very delicate information that they don't want divulged.”

Additional Reading
Nick Tosches, Power on Earth (1986); and Luigi DiFonzo, St. Peter's Banker (1983), explore Sindona's career.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Michele Sindona — bebiendo café. Nacimiento …   Wikipedia Español

  • Michele Sindona — Born May 8, 1920(1920 05 08) Patti, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) Died March 22, 1986( …   Wikipedia

  • Sindona — Michele Sindona (* 11. Mai 1920 in Patti; † 22. März 1986 in Voghera) war ein italienischer Rechtsanwalt und Bankier. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Siehe auch 3 Literatur 4 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Michele Sindona — (Patti, 8 mai 1920 – Voghera, 22 mars 1986) est un banquier et criminel italien que le pape Paul VI avait nommé conseiller financier du Vatican et comme membre du conseil d administration de l Institut pour les œuvres de religion. Il fut membre… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Michele Sindona — (* 8. Mai 1920 in Patti; † 22. März 1986 in Voghera) war ein italienischer Rechtsanwalt und Bankier. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Siehe auch 3 Literatur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Michele — [mikele] ist ein männlicher Vorname und Familienname. Der weibliche Vorname Michele im englischsprachigen Raum ist homograph. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Herkunft und Bedeutung 2 Weibliche Varianten 3 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Michele (given name) — Michele Pronunciation muh SHELL, mee SHELL, MEE shell, mee KEH leh (Italian) Gender Female, Male (Italian) Origin Word/Name Hebrew via French and English …   Wikipedia

  • Michele Placido — (2008) Michele Placido (* 19. Mai 1946 in Ascoli Satriano) ist ein italienischer Schauspieler, Regisseur und Drehbuchautor. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Placido, Michele — (1946 )    Actor and director. After graduating from the Italian National Academy for Dramatic Art, Placido made his stage debut in Luca Ronconi s landmark production of Orlando Furioso in 1969. While continuing to work in the theater in the… …   Guide to cinema

  • Placido, Michele — (1946 )    Actor and director. After graduating from the Italian National Academy for Dramatic Art, Placido made his stage debut in Luca Ronconi s landmark production of Orlando Furioso in 1969. While continuing to work in the theater in the… …   Historical dictionary of Italian cinema

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”