Italian prosecutors examine Vatican-Lux Vide operations

(ANSA) - Rome, May 21 - Financial operations allegedly involving the Vatican's former secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone have fallen under the lens of Roman prosecutors and Italian finance police after the Vatican on Tuesday denied a news report that the cardinal was under investigation by Vatican prosecutors for alleged embezzlement.
    Rome investigators have "monitored" a number of operations involving the Italian production company Lux Vide, owned by former head of RAI State TV Ettore Bernabei, 93, a veteran producer friend of the 79-year-old cardinal. Those controls fell under a larger probe into the Vatican bank, known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), regarding suspected violations of anti-money laundering norms. There is no specific criminal probe aimed at IOR loans to Lux Vide, however, and Lux Vide said Thursday that it has not been notified of any formal investigation into it or its administrators.
    The Vatican on Tuesday denied German daily Bild's report that Cardinal Bertone was under investigation for alleged embezzlement.
    "There is no probe of a penal nature against Cardinal Bertone," said spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, hours after the German tabloid sparked an international storm.
    Bild, citing "unofficial" Holy See sources, said the once-powerful official embezzled 15 million euros from Vatican coffers at the end of 2012.
    Bertone maintained the report was an "invention", adding that the transaction was conducted in a "normal" manner and that former pope Benedict XVI "had been informed of the financial transaction at Lux Vide".