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Minute Men News
Prophecy News Headlines
Prophecy
News Headlines
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Where Is The Us In Bible
Prophecy?
Most Americans Think Religious Freedom Fast Declining In US
Millions
of American adults, particularly Protestants and evangelicals, feel
religious freedoms have grown worse in the last decade in the United
States, and foresee further restrictions in the years to
come .... Click here for full story
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Where Is The Us In Bible
Prophecy?
Can America Survive If Americans No Longer Agree On A Core Set Of Shared Values?
What
does America stand for? That question is a lot more complicated than
you might think. Our Founding Fathers established a Republic that was
based on a set of shared values that were embodied in the text of the
U.S. Constitution
.... Click here for full story
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Where Is The Us In Bible
Prophecy?
Do You Want To Scare A Baby Boomer? Look At These Retirement Statistics
If you want to frighten Baby
Boomers, just show them the list of statistics in this article. The
United States is headed for a retirement crisis of unprecedented
magnitude, and we are woefully unprepared for it
.... Click here for full story
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Where Is The Us In Bible
Prophecy?
Survey: Fewer Americans Believe Homosexuality Is a Sin; Nation's View 'Evolving' With Obama's?
Fewer
Americans believe homosexuality is a sin than a little more than a year
ago, according to a survey completed by a faith-based research group
just 14 months after a similar study
.... Click here for full story
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Where Is The Us In Bible
Prophecy?
U.S. Gift Of F-16 Fighters Headed to Egypt, Despite Morsi's Anti-Israel Rhetoric
Four
F-16 fighter jets left the U.S. this morning, bound for Egypt as part
of a foreign aid package critics say should have been scrapped when the
nation elected a president who has called President Obama a liar and
urged that hatred of Jews be instilled in children.
.... Click here for full story
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Christian Worldview and Issues
'Ben-Hur' Remake to Focus More on Story of Christ
"Ben-Hur,"
one of the most popular biblical movies ever produced, is going to be
remade by MGM studios, with sources saying the focus of the storyline
will feature more heavily on Jesus Christ
.... Click
here for full story
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Christian Worldview and Issues
Comet Ison, Celestial Events & The Return Of Christ
Later
this year, Comet ISON will pass through the asteroid belt, enter the
Inner Solar System and sidestep Mars on its way past Earth, putting on
what scientists expect will be a spectacular heavenly show that is not
to be missed
.... Click here
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How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions
Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland
David Leigh, Jean François Tanda and Jessica Benhamou The Guardian
David Leigh, Jean François Tanda and Jessica Benhamou The Guardian
 |
| Behind Pope Benedict XVI is a porfolio of property that includes commercial premises on London's New Bond Street. Photograph: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis |
Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises
of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to
do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy
investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square and
Pall Mall.
But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.
Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.
Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds £500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.
The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.
Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: John Varley, recently chief executive of Barclays Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.
The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."
Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the JP Morgan bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.
British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than £50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.
Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result.
"Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.
Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".
The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."
From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.
When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.
The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".
According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed €680m (£570m).
While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.
The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini
But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.
Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.
Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds £500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.
The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.
Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: John Varley, recently chief executive of Barclays Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.
The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."
Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the JP Morgan bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.
British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than £50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.
Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result.
"Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.
Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".
The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."
From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.
When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.
The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".
According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed €680m (£570m).
While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.
The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini
The Conservative Byte
|
| January 22, 2013 |
Before It's News
Top 10 Trending Stories
Welcome to the Before It's News Top Trending Stories. Each weekday we
deliver the most important and interesting alternative stories to your
inbox. Be the first among your friends and colleagues to get the scoop
on the stories everyone should be talking about today.
MLK Was A Gun Carrying Republican
CONTRIBUTOR: muckracker1.
by Monica Davis Some folk find it astonishing that the Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., was a Republican and a gun carrier. Back in the day,
before the Republicans joined at the hip to right wing extremists, the
Republican Party, AKA, the "Party of Lincoln" was the preferred party
for...
.......................................................................................................................
Schools Gets Up To $1,000 Or More For Every Student Diagnosed As ADD/ADHD Here's Why.
CURATOR: Josey Wales.
Our school district is getting extra money for every student that is
diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. It is no wonder we have such a sick society.
Everyone is on drugs. Our federal education system has been a complete
failure. First it was Outcome Based Education, then Goals 2000, then No
Child...
.......................................................................................................................
State Dept. Releases Names Of Americans Killed In Algerian Terrorist Attack
CONTRIBUTOR: muckracker1.
We can now confirm the death of three U.S. citizens in the terrorist
attack in Algeria: Victor Lynn Lovelady, Gordon Lee Rowan, and Frederick
Buttaccio. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and
friends. Out of respect for the families' privacy, we have no further
comment. We are...
Click here to read, "State Dept. Releases Names Of Americans Killed In Algerian Terrorist Attack"...
.......................................................................................................................
CNN Caught Red Handed! Why Was CNN Using Fake Sandy Hook Footage? (Updated - New Video) (video)
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die.
Why was CNN running fake Sandy Hook school shooting footage during
their initial report? According to this excellent story on Digital
Journal, anyone with Google Earth can examine the property layout of
Sandy Hook elementary school and tell that footage used by CNN in this
school shooting video report below...
.......................................................................................................................
WW3 Imminent? China Quadrupling Rice Imports In 2012. Fed Printing Money Every Month In 2013. Countries Recalling Their Gold
CURATOR: John Rolls.
InvestmentWatch Follow history.1.) Currency War 2..) Then real war.
We’re on the bring of a major worldwide catastrophe. All this
quantitative easing by central banks in the U.S., Europe, China and
Japan as central banks build up balance sheets with trillions dollars of
assets they will never be able to...
.......................................................................................................................
Obama Lets Chinese Own U.S. Energy Resources - Beijing Acquiring Major Ownership In oil, Natural Gas Across Nation
CURATOR: John Rolls.
Jerome R. Corsi * WND NEW YORK – The Obama administration is quietly
allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural
gas resources across the U.S. The decision to allow China to compete for
U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to...
.......................................................................................................................
China Has A Plan To Sink US Fleet
CURATOR: Mort Amsel.
As the U.S. makes clear it will defend Japan should China try and lay
claim to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, this Chinese
announcement from mid-2012 offers additional perspective. Once the U.S.
announced it's turning attention from the Middle East and directing
military assets...
.......................................................................................................................
Shocking Kids Tortured & Mistreated In American Schools,Video (video)
CONTRIBUTOR: BARRACUDA. ...
.......................................................................................................................
The Death Throes Of America: A Descent Into Dictatorship Or A Resurgence Of Liberty, We Can't Have It Both Ways (video)
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die.
The excellent video from StormCloudsGathering you are about to watch is
an amazingly powerful work of art and education that lays it all out in
front of us, our country is dying. What may soon become of 'her' in our
futures is largely beyond most of our comprehensions, though we...
.......................................................................................................................
Electronic Payment Service Changes Rules And Holds Your Money Hostage
CONTRIBUTOR: muckracker1.
PayPal has had problems over the years with their obsessive fraud
filters which have aggravated users intensely. PayPal is in the process
of changing this process as reported to CNN on Jan. 21. There has been
an enigmatic verification process that has left some customers fighting
for many months in...
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MORE POPULAR STORIES
CONTRIBUTOR: Tea New York
CONTRIBUTOR: The Real Revo
CONTRIBUTOR: BARRACUDA
CURATOR: Josey Wales
CONTRIBUTOR: BARRACUDA
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die
CONTRIBUTOR: Live Free or Die
CURATOR: Zen Gardner
CONTRIBUTOR: AJackson92
CONTRIBUTOR: BARRACUDA
Nurse Arrested for Allegedly Having Sex With Corpse
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. (KTLA) — A male nurse at the Sherman Oaks Hospital has been arrested on suspicion of committing a sex act on a corpse.
Security guards reportedly caught Alejandro Lazo, 61, committing an act of necrophilia on Sunday and held him until officers arrived.
He was arrested on a state Health and Safety Code violation because the body was deceased, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Lazo, of Reseda, is free on $20,000 bail.
The L.A. County coroner will perform an autopsy on the body, police said. The findings could determine if more charges will be filed.
Razo is due in court on Feb. 11, according to online records.
No other details were immediately available. Anyone with information is asked to call (877) 527-3247.
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