From Newser

By the aptly named Mary Papenfuss. Too apt, in fact. (I think that it is made up)

Italian authorities have frozen $34 million at the heart of a money-laundering probe of the Vatican Bank. Two officials, including the chairman of the institution, are under investigation for failing to disclose the identity of clients linked to the funds, which is required by Italian law. The bank, whose main customers are Vatican officials and clergy, often transferred funds into other banks without revealing clients’ identities until 2007 when Italy initiated tougher laws

Don’t forget that this is Joe the Rat’s personal bank.

Authorities froze the suspect funds this week after the Vatican bank attempted to transfer $30 million to JP Morgan Chase in Frankfurt and $4 million to a small Italian bank, reports the Wall Street Journal. Another Italian bank first holding the funds reported “irregularities” in the Vatican operation. Officials at the Vatican, still reeling from a slew of clergy pedophile scandals, issued a statement saying they were “perplexed and amazed” by the investigation. “All the procedures aimed at preventing terrorism and money laundering have been taken,” the statement added.

And of course we all know that Vatican officials don’t lie.

Here is the more extensive Wall Street Journal coverage of same

Sample:

Prosecutors in Rome are investigating the alleged failure by the officials to disclose the identity of clients—required under Italian law—said a person familiar with the matter.

Because of the IOR’s relative opacity, the Bank of Italy has over the past year reiterated that transactions between Italian banks and the IOR were subject to anti-money laundering regulations. The IOR is subject to such regulations as a foreign lender, because it is based in the Holy See, an independent state.

Their insistence this tin-pot state created by Mussolini’s fiat, has come back to bit them in their catatimitic arses.