Free Republic

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' former finance minister, will soon return to the Vatican during an extraordinary economic scandal for the first time since he was cleared of child abuse allegations in Australia five months ago, a church agency said Monday. Pell will fly back to Rome on Tuesday, CathNews, an information agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said, citing “sources close to” Pell.... In his first television interview after his release, Pell linked his fight against Vatican corruption with his prosecution in Australia. The interview was conducted in April by Herald-Sun newspaper columnist Andrew...

Here’s a theory. That’s all it is: a theory. But if I had the investigative resources, I would be looking into it. I learned this week that under John Paul II, there were three people who always showed up at the Vatican with lots of money: Father Marcial Maciel, Cardinal Bernard Law, and Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who was made a cardinal by JP2. In 1988, McCarrick helped start the Papal Foundation, which raised money from wealthy American Catholics for the Pope’s favored projects. Last month, the Washington Post reported: “The Papal Foundation was a huge point of leverage for him...

Where are all the convictions? The S&L Crisis was the last major case of domestic fraud resulting not only in major U.S. bank failures but also thousands of convictions across the financial industry. However, today's crisis is vastly bigger, with many more players involved, and yet, not one person has been convicted or gone to jail. In the following transcript, William Black gives a behind the scenes look at events leading up to our current situation, who in the government needs to go, and other key details that will probably suprise you.Jim Puplava:    Joining me on the program is Professor William Black....

Abu Dhabi police have arrested seven men for plotting to defraud the UAE central bank of 7.2 billion euros ($10.17 billion) using false documents, the state news agency WAM said on Saturday. It said the suspects, three Europeans and four Asians, had presented forged documents from a commercial bank in Europe purporting that the central bank of the United Arab Emirates owed the funds representing the family investments of the gang's leader. "The documents presented by the suspects were fake and meant for attempted fraud targeting the central bank," WAM quoted Colonel Hammad al-Hammadi, director of the police's Criminal Investigation...