Banco Ambrosiano; The scandal that led to the RCMP’s demise and the rise of a Canadian Prime Minister

Part I


By: Daniel Deilgat
Toronto, Ontario
dandeilgat@yahoo.ca



From Italy to Montreal in 86 years

Banco Ambrosiano, the cradle of The Holly Trinity of Money Launderers, is where this all started.

The bank was founded in 1896. The purpose of the bank was to create a Catholic bank as a counter-balance to Italy’s “lay” banks.
Accordingly the goals were to serve moral organizations, pious works and religious charities.
“The Priests’ bank” as it came to be known eventually began to expand its operations and, in 1963, it opened a holding company in Luxembourg. Banco Ambrosiano Holdings was under the direction of Carlo Canesi, Ambrosiano’ Chairman.

In 1947 Canesi brought Roberto Calvi in Banco Ambrosiano and by 1975, Calvi was appointed Chairman of Banco Ambrosiano.

From 1947 to 1975, Calvi was acquainted with the power elite of Italy and the Vatican. During that period Calvi was made a member of the now infamous and illegal Propaganda Due “ P-2” Masonic lodge whose members, included the future Prime Minister of Italy, business people, bankers of course and most the heads of the Italian Intelligence and security forces.

Roberto Calvi was also close to Bishop Paul Marcinkus, the Chairman of the Vatican Bank- “ Istituto per le Opere di Religione”.

The Vatican Bank was the controlling shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano.

Together, the banks formed offshore accounts to move money out of Italy and before long, the banks network was used by both the Italian Mafia and the American government.

In one peculiar oddity, Banco Ambrosiano provided funds to the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and its Sandinista opposition, supporting both the dictator and his enemies.

In 1978, barely three years after Calvi became Chairman, the Bank of Italy produced a report about Banco Ambrosiano that predicted the demise of the financial institution. That report led to a criminal investigation.

Emilio Alessandrini, the Milanese investigating magistrate responsible for the Banco Ambrosiano case was killed by a left-wing terrorist group suspected of having ties to the Italian NATO stay behind structure called “ Gladio”. The structure of private armies operated under a NATO umbrella specialized in what is commonly known as false flag operations. Gladio was found to have cause for at least one terrorist bombing in Italy in the late seventies and as a result the Italian government outlawed the organization.

The case in the media boasted that the discovery of Gladio was the single most significant blow to NATO’s secret armies operations in Europe. Soon after throughout Europe, other groups operating under NATO were uncovered and disbanded, most were affiliated with the P-2 Masonic lodge of Italy.

Not long after the Alessandrini’s assassination, Mario Sarcinelli, a Bank of Italy official who was in charge of the Banco Ambrosiano case was imprisoned on charges that were eventually dismissed.

Yet the investigation continued. In 1981 police raided the office of Propaganda Due to arrest the Worshipful Master, Licio Gelli. What Police also found was further evidence against Roberto Calvi and as a result, Calvi was imprisoned, put on trial and sentenced to four years in jail. However Calvi was released on bail pending an appeal and he was re-instated as Chairman of the bank.

As the Banco Ambrosiano scandal erupted in the media, the manager of the transaction clearing company “Clearstream”, Gerard Soisson, was found dead in Corsica in July of 1983.
Banco Ambrosiano was one of many banks to have un-published accounts with Clearstream.

Both Soisson and another man who worked at Clearstream, Ernest Backes, were the only two individuals that moved the money for Banco Ambrosiano to Lima, Peru and other South American branches of Banco Ambrosiano at Clearstream.
Backes became a source for writer Denis Robert who published a book about Clearstream’s secret accounts. The book is called Revelations.

Meanwhile back in Italy, Carlo de Benedetti bought into Banco Ambrosiano and became Deputy Chairman with Roberto Calvi. Two months in, Benedetti unexpectedly quit after being threatened by the mafia. His replacement, Roberto Rosone was soon shot and wounded in what is term as a mafia shooting.

All of these shootings and murders were against officials of a bank owned by the Vatican and conducted by a gang called “ Banda della Magliana”.

In 1982, it was discovered that Banco Ambrosiano could not account for 1.2 billion dollars of transactions. The money had simply disappeared and Roberto Calvi did the same.

Calvi was found dead hanging under the Blackfriar’s Bridge in London on June the 18th, 1982.
The death was ruled a suicide by the British Authorities until a few years later, when it was determined that Calvi had not climbed the scaffolding to reach his perch where he was found.

Journalist David Yallop believes that Calvi, with the help of P-2, had been instrumental in the death of Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I.

On June the 18th 1982 when Roberto Calvi was found dead, in his coat pockets was fifteen thousand dollars and the business card of Arthur Campeau, a lawyer and a partner in Brian Mulroney’s firm, Ogilvy, Renault.

Part II

The Holly Trinity, Brian Mulroney and the demise of the RCMP


By: Daniel Deilgat
Toronto, Ontario
dandeilgat@yahoo.ca

In her book “Blue Trust”, Canadian author Stevie Cameron quotes Arthur Campeau as she alleges that he was retained by Calvi’s widow to fend off creditors but, what Campeau failed to acknowledge was that Roberto Calvi’s widow wanted the insurance money from her husband’s policy, she hired Campeau to sue the insurer…
Roberto calvi’s death was ruled a suicide and as such, the Calvis had no reasonable claims against the Italian’s insurer.
Yet Campeau accepted to act as the Calvi’s attorney and that meant that his new clients created a conflict of interests between the Calvi family and other clients of Ogilvy, Renault.

Campeau accepted to leave the firm and kept the Calvi file.

Ogilvy, Renault represented Banco Ambrosiano in various circumstances here in Canada. Accordingly, certain members of the Propaganda Due Masonic lodge were also clients of the firm through their affiliation with Banco Ambrosiano.

Strangely and although Roberto Calvi’s death was ruled a suicide at the time, the firm had the clairvoyant foresight to distance itself from the Calvi family and, Arthur Campeau.

It was much later that the clients of Ogilvy, Renault would be charged in Italy with the murder of Roberto Calvi.

By that time, the file and Arthur Campeau had landed at Brian Mulroney’s attorney’s firm, Bruce Verchere.
Brian Mulroney, as a former partner at Ogilvy, Renault was aware of the firm’s role in the Calvi file and he was no stranger to the conflict of interests that arose when the firm failed to diligently assess the relations of the Calvi widow's husband.

Mulroney’s supervision in the matters was crucial to and for the clients of the firm that were now being accused of the Murder of Roberto Calvi.

Once Mulroney became Prime Minister of Canada, he was able to exercise influence over Federal agencies and, in one of his boldest efforts, he dismantled the RCMP’s National Security Division by relieving the force of its National Security duties. Brian Mulroney’s government, under the guise of acting on independent recommendations, stripped the RCMP of its international resources and created the Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency-CSIS, an agency that to this day has yet to find its footing and is the laughing stock of the international intelligence community.

Overnight, it was assured that any intelligence that was gathered by the RCMP against P-2 and Banco Ambrosiano was no longer available for the force’s criminal investigators, blinding the Canadian authorities and reducing the RCMP to the rank of intelligence secretaries.

Brian Mulroney in time had proved his colors and would soon be brought back into the fold at Ogilvy, Renault. The firm had dodged a cannon ball and would forever be grateful.

Assets of the Wholly Trinity were safe here in Canada.

Meanwhile, Bruce Verchere and Arthur Campeau still had to sort out the details of the Calvi file. According to sources close to Ogilvy,Renault, Mulroney would sometimes advise on the Calvi file and eventually, Roberto Calvi’s body-and shoes, were exhumed and it was determined that the British Coroner had failed to acknowledge that Calvi’s shoes lacked markings that would have evidenced that Calvi had climbed the scaffolding under the bridge. Hence, if he didn’t climb up there, someone had to have brought him there…

This was now a homicide case.

But during that period dissent apparently set-in between Bruce Verchere and Arthur Campeau. Eventually Campeau left Verchere’s firm and confided in author Stevie Cameron that the Calvi file involved too much money, that the CIA had to be involved, that too many people were dropping like flies…

Soon after, Mulroney’s friend and lawyer- Bruce Verchere, was found dead.

Apparently Verchere had shot himself, twice.

Mulroney was resigning amid scandals surrounding his government and Verchere’s death was an untimely obstacle.

Mulroney sent the Calvi file to my attorney, James Woods.