Vatican monsignor denied house arrest in $26M plot
VATICAN CITY The Vatican monsignor arrested in a 20 million euro ($26 million) money-smuggling plot has been denied house arrest.
A judge on Friday refused the request by Monsignor Nunzio Scarano's lawyers to let him await a decision on his fate in a monastery, ruling he must stay in Rome's Queen of Heaven prison. Attorney Silverio Sica said he would appeal.
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Scarano was arrested June 28 along with two others, accused of plotting to bring 20 million euros into Italy from Switzerland without declaring it at customs.
The decision came a day after the Vatican bank president, Ernst von Freyberg, told his board that an internal investigation into the Scarano affair uncovered "clear failings" in the bank's anti-money-laundering procedures, according to excerpts of his remarks obtained Friday by The Associated Press.