A powerful Italian cardinal today denied a report that he pressured the Vatican bank into making a suspicious deal with a friend's television production company and the Vatican specified he was not under criminal investigation.
Germany's Bild Zeitung newspaper said the Vatican's Financial Information Authority was investigating a USD 21-million deal by the Vatican bank with the Italian company Lux Vide owned by Ettore Bernabei.
The 79-year-old Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's former secretary of state and then head of the bank's oversight committee of cardinals told the Adnkronos news agency that the deal with Lux Vide had been regularly approved.
"The IOR convention with the company Lux Vide was discussed and approved by the committee of cardinals and by the supervisory board at a meeting on December 4, 2013 as shown by the minutes," Bertone was quoted as saying.
The ANSA news agency also quoted Bertone as saying that there was "no problem linked to this operation".
"I don't understand these attacks," said Bertone, who was replaced last year by Pope Francis with Pietro Parolin as secretary of state -- a role equivalent to prime minister.
"I am in harmony with the pope... He likes me," he said.
