Banda Della Magliana - Roberto Calvi's Case

Roberto Calvi's Case

Roberto Calvi, alias "God's Banker" in charge of Banco Ambrosiano, which main-shareholder was the Vatican Bank, was killed in London on 18 June 1982. Banco Ambrosiano, which crashed in one of the major financial scandals of the 1980s, was involved in money-laundering activities for the mafia, and allegedly in funneling funds to the Polish Solidarity trade union (Solidarność) and the Contras in Nicaragua. Ernesto Diotallevi, one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana, is being prosecuted for Calvi's murder.

In 1997, Italian prosecutors in Rome implicated a member of the Sicilian Mafia, Giuseppe Calò, in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni, a Sardinian businessman with wide ranging interests. Two other men, Ernesto Diotallevi (purportedly one of the leaders of the Banda della Magliana) and former Mafia member turned informer Francesco Di Carlo, were also alleged to be involved in the killing.

On 19 July 2005, Licio Gelli, the grand master of the Propaganda Due or P2 masonic lodge, was formally indicted by magistrates in Rome for the murder of Calvi, along with Giuseppe Calò, Ernesto Diotallevi, Flavio Carboni and Carboni's Austrian ex-girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig. Licio Gelli, in his statement before the court, blamed figures connected with Calvi's work financing Solidarność, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican. Gelli was accused of having provoked Calvi's death in order to punish him for embezzling money from Banco Ambrosiano that was owed to him and the Mafia. The Mafia was also claimed to have wanted to prevent Calvi from revealing that Banco Ambrosiano had been used for money laundering.

On 5 October 2005, the trial of the five individuals charged with Calvi's murder began in Rome. The defendants are Giuseppe Calò, Flavio Carboni, Manuela Kleinszig, Ernesto Diotallevi, and Calvi's former driver and bodyguard Silvano Vittor. The trial is taking place in a specially fortified courtroom in Rome's Rebibbia prison and is expected to last up to two years.

On 6 June 2007, all five individuals were cleared by the court of murdering Calvi. Mario Lucio d'Andria, the presiding judge at the trial, threw out the charges citing "insufficient evidence" after hearing 20 months of evidence. The verdict was seen as a surprise by some observers. The court ruled that Calvi's death was murder and not suicide. The defence had suggested that there were plenty of people with a motive for Calvi's murder, including Vatican officials and Mafia figures who wanted to ensure his silence. Legal experts who had followed the trial said that the prosecutors found it hard to present a convincing case due to the 25 years that had elapsed since Calvi's death. An additional factor was that some key witnesses were unwilling to testify, untraceable, or dead. The prosecution had earlier called for Manuela Kleinszig to be cleared, stating that there was insufficient evidence against her, but it had sought life sentences for the four men.

On 7 May 2010, the Court of Appeals confirmed the acquittal of Calò, Carboni and Diotallevi. The public prosecutor Luca Tescaroli commented after the verdict that for the family "Calvi has been murdered for the second time." On November 18, 2011, the court of last resort, the Court of Cassation, confirmed the acquittal.

Furthermore, the son of Roberto Calvi has claimed that Emanuela Orlandi's case was closely related to Calvi's case.