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- [00:01]
Nicolomini
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- [00:32]
Gerald Pozner
Subscribers can listen to the full season of Shadow Kingdom right now. Join friendsofthepod@crooked.com friends or on Apple Podcasts.
- [00:47]
Nicolomini
Campsite Media.
- [00:53]
Gerald Pozner
The first thing I wanted to figure out after Mario set me on this mission was was simple. Who was God's banker? And I had a plan. Step 1 Use my frequent flyer miles to fly to Rome. From there I'd find my old Vespa, which lay dormant in my grandmother's garage. Then I'd zip to a criminal courthouse where I'd find transcripts of a big trial Mario had told me about, a trial that happened after Calvi's death. These transcripts would be a great primer for the Italian side of the story. Finally, I'd Vespa over to the Vatican to gaze upon the buildings where Calvi had apparently built an empire with the Vatican's money. But my courthouse visit did not go as planned. The clerk said my Italian lawyer ID didn't work anymore, so I couldn't check out the exact documents I wanted. Also, the Vatican was on lockdown for a Pope Francis event. So I pointed my Vespa away from St. Peter's and I sped down Via della Conciliazione, a road I'd find out later that Calvi had walked before. A road that actually changed his life. But in those early days of my research, I was only after the very basics of Calvi's life and Persona. And I'm gonna be honest, Roberto Calvi is a tough guy to get to know. Even with all the books I've unearthed, the news footage I've tracked down in Italian archives, the early years of Calvi's life are still a bit of a mystery. I do know that Roberto Calvi wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He grew up in 1920s Milan, which was the wealthiest city in Italy at the time. But his parents were from a remote village in the Alps. Though not poor, they were certainly considered thrifty, austere. Calvi's mom sent young Roberto to an exclusive prep School, dressed in drab clothes, where he actually developed a side hustle, getting paid to do rich kids homework. Calvi's colleagues said he had a chip on his shoulder. As a young man, he volunteered for the Italian cavalry, hoping to raise his social status. He ended up fighting for the Axis in Russia, paralyzing three of his fingers. And when he returned home, he didn't have a cushy job waiting for him. Calvi had to start from the bottom as a humble clerk for the local bank, the Banco Ambrosiano. These data points were easy to find. What has been more difficult for me to figure out is is what kind of person Calvi was. What else motivated him? What scared him? Who were his friends? Who were his enemies? To find out more about Calvi, the person I first reached out to author Gerald Pozner.
- [03:54]
Michele Sindona
I'm an author and investigative reporter and I did a book called God's Bankers, which is a financial history of the Vatican.
- [04:02]
Gerald Pozner
And in it he painted a picture of the kind of banker Calvi was.
- [04:07]
Michele Sindona
There's no question that Calvi had an unassuming presence. When he met people, he may not have seemed very aggressive, but he was a domineering, take no prisoners, check every box, control freak down the line.
- [04:24]
Gerald Pozner
Calvi was ambitious. He worked harder than his co workers. He was also really smart. He was one of the only bankers at the Ambrosiano who spoke at least three languages. And he helped pioneer mutual funds in Italy before they were really thing. By his 30s, Calvi was a manager at the bank. But he had aspirations of climbing to the very top. And this was all happening during a boom time in Italy during the 1960s. They called it the Miracle Economico. The economic miracle. At the time, Italy had one of the fastest growing GDPs in the Western world.
- [05:04]
Vincenzo Calcara
Milan, a historic town which today is Italy's richest industrial city. Italy's ambition to lead the world in fashions comes nearer to fulfillment. Every year. More than a million people live in this growing manufacturing center. The Fiat 600, over $200 less than the leading French and German imports. Calculators, computers, typewriters, systems. Olivetti sells them worldwide information. Italians with a passion for engines but no money for a car now travel uproariously and happily on their Vespas or Lambrettas.
- [05:39]
Gerald Pozner
Vespas and Fiats flying off Italian assembly lines. Color TVs, Fendi, Fellini, La Dolce Vita. The economy was bouncing back from World War II and there was a lot more money flowing. Generally money for big business deals. According to Pozner Calvi yearned for a spot in the C suites of his bank. He wanted the riches that the Miracolo Economico promised. But all of the highest positions in his bank seemed to go to Italy's aristocrats, the blue bloods. His boss was literally a duke. Meanwhile, Calvi settled into middle age and the middle class. He woke up each day still dressed in drab beige clothes. After 20 years at the bank, his co workers still snickered behind his back. They'd point out how he'd dye his hair, how he'd wear fancy hats and pretend to hold higher positions than he did. The powerlessness and the stagnancy seemed to eat at Calvi. Until, that is, one day when he discovered someone who came from a similar background, Someone who actually broke through the aristocratic ceiling to become the type of Italian banking superstar Cali dreamed of.
- [06:57]
Vincenzo Calcara
He owned holding companies in Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, hotels in Washington, such as the Watergate complex, as well as in Paris, and banks in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and New York.
- [07:07]
Gerald Pozner
Italian financier Michele Sindona. By the late 1960s, Sindona had a worldwide empire of banks and holding companies. He had regular lunches with Nixon before he was president.
- [07:20]
Michele Sindona
Sindona was bold, he was assertive, he was doing big things in Italian finance and he had grand ambitions. Sidona viewed himself as the king of all financiers.
- [07:32]
Gerald Pozner
And Sindona, like Calvi, came from nothing. He was an outsider from dirt poor Sicily. Born the same year as Calvi, Sedona was basically a human blueprint for ascending into an echelon of super wealth. And in 1969, Calvi figured out a way to meet him. And that meeting would launch Calvi into a greater financial world. Past Milan, past Italy, even beyond any earthly institution, into the heavens. But what he didn't know was how this meeting would also drag him down into the underworld and seal his fate from crooked media and campside media. This is Shadow Kingdom, God's banker. I'm Niccolo Minoni and this is episode two, our thing.
- [08:31]
Vincenzo Calcara
A well known Milan lawyer was murdered while investigating the bankruptcy of one of Sedona's banks.
- [08:36]
Michele Sindona
The only shareholder for the Vatican bank is the Pope. No one else.
- [08:44]
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- [10:27]
Michele Sindona
You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries. You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns. McDonald's breakfast comes first.
- [10:42]
Gerald Pozner
It was 1969 when Roberto Calvi walked into Sedona's white granite Milan office building. There he met a little man with thinning hair, slicked back, a man with a distinct raspy voice. Calvi wanted to meet me, recalled Sindona in an interview years later. I said, absolutely. Sedona sensed he could use a man like Calvi, a banker from the well established Banco Ambrosiano. The Ambrosiano, Calvi's bank, started as a firm for priests and was still considered to be a Catholic bank, but it had grown into one of Italy's largest private lenders. Sindona, a free market guy, told an interviewer that he was very interested in the private sector. Sindona thought the Banco Ambrosiano had a lot of room to grow, and in Calvi he saw the potential for a great business partner. But in that meeting, Calvi made the first move. Calvi told Sindona all about his dreams to run the Ambrosiano and how he wanted to be just like Sindona. Calvi's ambition was on full display. Right after Calvi left his office, Sindona picked up the phone and dialed in. I knew Calvi's boss says Sindona, and so I called him to get the lowdown on Calvi. Calvi's patrician boss picked up the phone and proceeded to tell Sedona that Calvi, he's sort of a joke. Like, did you know Calvi's afraid to fly? I had to hold his hand on his first flight for work. In other words, Calvi is a provincial nobody. This may have hit Sindona in a special way. Remember, Sindona was a self made man too. Overlooked by the blue bloods and generally ridiculed to no end by the Italian elites. Sedona put the phone down and sent word to Calvi, come back. I want to see you again. As the two got to know each other and started making plans, Sedona told Calvi about an arrangement that sounded too good to be true. About six years earlier, in 1963, the new pope Paul VI was elected. And it took him very little time to realize that the Vatican finances were a mess. The Church, though still super rich, was on the verge of losing a lot of money.
- [13:39]
Michele Sindona
And over time, it had to figure out how to bring in money. You know, you can sell indulgences and have people send money to the Pope, but it's hard to run a whole church based on that.
- [13:50]
Gerald Pozner
According to Gerald Pozner, donations were way down and the Vatican needed more liquidity. So much of the Church's wealth was tied up in artifacts and real estate. Try paying your bills with a Caravaggio. Sensing a financial opportunity, Sedona got an audience with the new Pope Posner again.
- [14:13]
Michele Sindona
When Pope Paul VI meets with Sedona, who has a reputation for being very clever and smarter than every other banker and a devout Catholic as well, which is very important, the Pope makes the decision himself. I'm naming you at this moment as God's banker.
- [14:31]
Gerald Pozner
And Sindona had his own terms.
- [14:34]
Michele Sindona
Sindona is given essentially by Paul VI the free reins, which is, I don't want to just be an investment advisor telling the Vatican where to put his money. I want the ability to, to actually sign for the Vatican without having to come back for an approval every time.
- [14:53]
Gerald Pozner
Sindona now had the prestige and the assets of the Church behind him on a level no one else in the world had. Sindona told Calvi. That's how he became the head financial advisor to the Vatican Bank. Because, yes, the Vatican has its own bank. But unlike most big banks, Sedona didn't answer to A board or have a slew of shareholders looking over his shoulder. He only answered to one guy.
- [15:27]
Michele Sindona
The only shareholder for the Vatican bank is the Pope. No one else. It doesn't publish annual reports. If you are standing on a street corner in Rome with a suitcase filled with a million dollars, the Italian tax authorities can do something and ask you where you got the cash from. You cross the street and you're in Vatican territory. You give that suitcase to a friendly monsignor who has an account at the Vatican Bank. He deposits it because the Vatican Bank's bylaws allow it to take investments in kind, in art, in gold, in cash, in whatever, and it disappears. Italian tax authorities no longer know about it. They can't follow it. You don't pay taxes on it.
- [16:06]
Gerald Pozner
Did you catch that? The Vatican bank, unlike any of the other banks in its vicinity, was unregulated, totally secret attributes that would be very appealing if you didn't want anyone to know what you were up to. Calvi had Italian regulators to answer to at the Banco Ambrosiano. But Sindona controlled a black box right in the heart of Rome. And Calvi wanted a piece of that power.
- [16:37]
Michele Sindona
The relationship between Calvi and Sindona started positive, but that's because Sindona viewed himself as the king of all financiers. He was in his God's banker. And Sindona sold confidence. It's one of the things that he was very good at doing. And Calvi was a bit more dour, a bit less outgoing, seemed to have less magic, if you met him, than Sedona did.
- [17:04]
Gerald Pozner
And over the next few years, the boisterous Sedona and his new brooding mentee, Calvi made the Vatican a ton of money. They played the stock market, they made real estate deals. They brought modern investment banking to the sleepy Vatican Bank. But Posner says these guys were not saints, they were opportunists.
- [17:27]
Michele Sindona
They will help others in business so long as they can see them helping themselves.
- [17:34]
Gerald Pozner
Sendona and Calvi took full advantage of their connection to the Pope. The bankers name dropped the Vatican constantly and used the reputation of the Church to secure huge loans for their own businesses. In return, the bankers came up with a plan to massively divest the Church's investments in Italy. The new scheme funneled the Church's money abroad, thus shielding the Church from the prying eyes of the Italian state, and earned Calvi and Sindona a nice profit.
- [18:07]
Michele Sindona
They weren't taking Vatican investments, and they were turning to the Vatican 10 or 15 or 20%. A year and saying, aren't you happy with that? They were instead putting the Vatican into many offshore deals in tax haven countries that would be off the radar for international regulators to control. The Vatican didn't have to worry about paying taxes.
- [18:31]
Gerald Pozner
Calvi's career was propelled by his Vatican connections. In the early 70s, he was promoted multiple times. He was named general manager of the bank, then managing director. The the biggest newspapers in Italy called it Calvi's arrival into society. The president of Italy made Calvi a Knight of Labor. Calvi was celebrating. He was making it to the top. He'd made so much money that he bought a house in the most exclusive gated community in the Bahamas. How far Calvi had come since his days of doing homework for rich kids. Now he was the rich kid, jetting from Milan to New York to the Caribbean, going to parties with famous actresses. He'd hitched his fate to send Donna and the Catholic Church. And his whole life had changed. And the wealth kept coming. But eventually, Calvinist mentor had a falling out. Sedona got into trouble with US Banking regulators after he bought a Long Island bank in 1972. Sendona needed cash to refill accounts that he shouldn't have been spending from. He needed Calvi's help. And the newly knighted Calvi kind of blew him off. Calvi now had offshore operations, a bunch of cash, and a direct line to the Pope. So he offered Sindona a little money from the Banco Ambrosiano, but not nearly what his old mentor needed. And without Calvi's help, that trouble that Sendona was in, it snowballed until 25.
- [20:15]
Vincenzo Calcara
Years in jail, a $207,000 fine. That was the sentence handed down to Michele Sindona, the Italian financier convicted of a multi million dollar fraud that led to the biggest bank failure in our country's history.
- [20:27]
Gerald Pozner
But Sindona's downfall turned out to be Calvi's big break. He could take over Sedona's role with the Vatican. He alone could be God's banker. And in doing so, he would take on some of Sendona's most dangerous clients, too. That's after the break. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. If you're in this far, then I'm assuming you've probably listened to some tales of malfeasance, financial crimes of all sorts, maybe some heartache. And while I don't want to drag the good people at BetterHelp into the world of financial intrigue, I cannot help but wonder, what if just a handful of our protagonists had had access to easy, low stakes therapy, would the story have unfolded differently? But therapy isn't just for those in crisis. It's for perspective, for self awareness, for learning how to step back. And unlike the financial statements of our protagonists, it's actually quite easy and simple to access. BetterHelp makes therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. And though it has a network of more than 30,000 therapists, you can also just switch your therapist anytime at no extra cost. So build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com kingdom to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelph e l-p.com kingdom.
- [22:22]
Nicolomini
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- [22:53]
Gerald Pozner
Calvi got his wish. By the late 70s, he alone was God's banker.
- [22:59]
Michele Sindona
It does break right for Calvi in the sense that he's able to market himself and his bank as a very conservative financial option.
- [23:11]
Gerald Pozner
But Calvi wasn't satisfied. He wanted the Banco Ambrosiano to keep growing and growing until it was the biggest bank in Italy, maybe Europe. Pozner said Calvi was looking for shortcuts and that meant taking on clients with a lot of money, of, let's say, questionable origin, like the Mafia. This is a claim that came up multiple times in my reporting. Mario mentioned it. Reporters brought it up at Calvi's death. Court cases tied Calvi's mentor Michael Sendona to the mob. And murder.
- [23:47]
Vincenzo Calcara
A well known Milan lawyer was murdered while investigating the bankruptcy of one of Sedona's banks. And Sedona's name was linked to several murders believed committed by organized crime.
- [23:57]
Gerald Pozner
Calvi definitely took on his mentor's papal clients. But did he take on Sedona's illicit clients as well? If I could prove Calvi's ties to the Mafia, that would substantiate at least part of Mario's story. It would still be a fairly logical explanation to Calvi's death. Calvi got tied up with the Mafia. Maybe he racked up big debts, they killed him. Sad, but no big conspiracy. A resolution that would satisfy the English and Italian sides of my brain. The problem I found was that Calvi's Mafia ties were hard to substantiate. Everyone seemed to say he was working with the Mafia.
- [24:39]
Vincenzo Calcara
Senor Calvi's widow and son maintain that he was murdered in a plot which implicates the Vatican and the Italian Mafia. Has been widespread conjecture that Calvi was deliberately killed, probably by the Mafia following the collapse of his business.
- [24:57]
Gerald Pozner
But I couldn't get a straight answer on what Calvi did for the Mafia. So I put my Italian lawyer hat on and I went through decades of Calvi related legal documents. There wasn't a smoking gun, no wire transfer from John Gotti to Roberto Calvi. But there were a few leads. Several names of Mafia leaders or Mafiosi that Sindona could have introduced Calvi to. These were members of the Sicilian Mafia known as Cosanostere. That translates in English to our thing. They're arguably the most organized, most deadly, most famous Italian criminal enterprise. Exactly the type of people I'd hoped to stay away from when I decided not to be a prosecutor in Italy and practice cushy, comfortable, safe corporate law instead. But here I was, spending months looking for mafiosi who might have worked with Roberto Calvi and reaching out to them. And there was one former Cosa Nostra soldier I thought might speak to me. He was mentioned in some of the court records I found and he described Calvi in business with his Mafia family. I wanted him to agree to talk with me on the record. And to prove to him just how serious I was. I needed to get on a plane to Europe. Vincenzo Calcara was a soldier for one of the most powerful Mafia families, the Castel Vetrano family. He was very close to the top boss, so he'd be privy to knowledge at the highest level of his organization. But as a soldier, I was also hoping he'd talk me through the mechanics of how the cache moved. The address he gave me was in a little town close to Italy's border with Switzerland. It was a little apartment building that sat behind a train track overlooking the mountains. As I walked up, I was running through the questions I wanted to ask. More than anything, I wanted to know, was it true that Roberto Calvi dealt directly with Cosa Nostra? And what did he do for them? I was greeted warmly by Calcara's daughters and sat in a living room overlooking the train station. Minutes slowly ticked by and I did my best to keep my nerves at bay. Then a 66 year old man in a three piece suit walked in Vincenzo Calcada strolled in with the swagger, the confidence of a showman. He knew the spotlight was on him, and it seemed like everyone else in the room knew it too. As he gave me a once over, I felt myself shrink. He looked at my tangled hair and tattered sneakers before giving a little shrug. As soon as he felt settled in the room, Calcara began to test me. He started telling me about beautiful guns he'd stolen, epic robberies and initiation rituals. I could tell he wanted to see what reactions he could elicit. He wanted to control the conversation. The former Mafioso leaned in to tell me about a small dog he had when he was much, much younger. Black with white spots, a little guy that would follow him around. But his Mafia boss told him the dog was a sign of weakness. He was testing Calcara's dedication to the Cosa Nostra family. The boss told Calcara to get rid of the puppy, and as Calcara said this, I noticed him making a finger gun motion. Barely into our interview. Calcara was telling me how he loved and nurtured a puppy and then killed it at a moment's notice to prove his loyalty. I'm pretty sure if you could see my face at this moment in the interview, it would have been red as I tried to force out a polite nod. Anyway, it's at this point that I do my best to shift the conversation away from dog murder and get into why he's willing to talk to me about Calvi. And he explained that 30 years ago he'd been arrested for robbery, extortion and attempted murder. And now that Calcara was out of jail, he was itching to tell his story, to relive his glory days without fear of being prosecuted. Again, I moved the conversation on to Roberto Calvi. Calchara's boss told him he was going to meet a big banker who handled the interests of Cosa Nostra, Roberto Calvi, and that he was a big deal with global influence. Fuck global. Who the fuck does he think he is? Jesus Christ is how Calcara said he reacted. And his boss clarified that it's fine, that Calvi should be respected, that he looked after the interests of Cosa Nostra and their money. Alright, so Calcara confirmed that Calvi worked for Cosa Nostra and had their respect. But did Calcara have more evidence that might connect Cosa Nostra to Calvi's death? Or even a possible motive for murder, like some movie gangster? Calcara answered my question with a story shortly After Sindona's fall, Calcara got a big call from his Mafia's boss boss. They needed someone to deliver $10 million to Rome. I can go immediately, Calcara told the boss. He stuffed his bags with guns and a $10 million. Then he slipped into a stolen police uniform, passed airport security and flew from Sicily to Rome. And just like any passenger, Calcara trudged through the arrival's gate and waited for his checked bags. He sipped on a coffee, watching the porters huffing as they tried to lift his suitcases. Calcara smirked. Nobody knew what he had in his bags. He nonchalantly rolled his bags outside where an unusual caravan of cars was waiting for him. He spotted a black Mercedes with diplomatic license plates from the Vatican. And out of that Mercedes stepped several priests. As Calcara remembers, his Mafia cohorts kissed the rings and cheeks of the monsignors with the niceties. At the airport, over the Mafia Vatican crew hopped into cars and made their way to a villa on the outskirts of Rome. As the cars pulled into the villa, they ground to a halt. Calcara says he got out and wheeled the man million dollar suitcases over to his boss, who took them deeper into the villa.
- [33:17]
Michele Sindona
Okay.
- [33:18]
Gerald Pozner
Calcara's boss told him to stand guard. Do not let any strangers in. If anyone gives you trouble, shoot them. Calcara stood at attention, ready to kill invaders just like he killed his dog. Quiet. Calvi, with his bald head, thick mustache and slight slouch, approached Calcara. The Mafioso let him through. Inside the villa, the Mafia men talked with Calvi and the priests for several hours before they left with the suitcases to bring back to the Vatican. So now Calcara can connect Calvi to managing the Mafia's money. But there was more. Right before we wrapped up, as if he were reading my mind, he opened up about one last thing. There was a meeting, he said, shortly before Calvi died, with the top Cosa Nostra bosses. They gathered to discuss one where the hell had all their money gone? Their international investments? Their money had vanished, he said. And these Mafia bosses were trying to figure out if Roberto Calvi had made an honest mistake in bad investments or if he was trying to screw them over. Whatever the outcome of that decision, this was not a good meeting for Roberto Calvi, at least according to Calcara. Also according to Calcara, Calvi did have Mafia money and he lost it. So potentially the Mafia would have had the means and the motive to kill the banker. It sounded incredible, fantastical. Even. But the stories became more likely as I fact checked them. Calcara's story matched with other testimony from other mafiosi. And then I called a legendary Italian judge who prosecuted the Mafia. I'm interested. If Calvi knew that his bank was used for Mafia money laundering.
- [35:58]
Vincenzo Calcara
I could say that Calvi is knew that his bank was used for money laundering.
- [36:05]
Gerald Pozner
Wow. For Mafia money laundering.
- [36:07]
Vincenzo Calcara
For Mafia money laundering, yes.
- [36:10]
Gerald Pozner
Wow. This judge was an expert at investigating illicit cash flows, and he said that Calvi was the money man for multiple Mafia families. But if that's true, what the hell had Calvi done with the Mafia's money? Kalkara's bosses wanted to know. I wanted to know. Turns out the answer to that question involves an organization even scarier, even more sinister than the Mafia itself. An organization that you've likely never heard of. A secretive underground order that sucked millions upon millions of dollars from Roberto Calvi. That's next time on Shadow Kingdom.
- [37:05]
Vincenzo Calcara
The battle lines have been forming in Italy for months. Nearly 1,000 of Italy's elite, including three cabinet members, were allegedly members of an outlawed super secret, super evil. A massive explosion today in a train station in Bologna, Italy, killed at least 76 people and injured almost 200 more. This system is completely rotten, completely corrupt, completely legitimate. Therefore, it's okay to blow up this entire building.
- [37:35]
Gerald Pozner
Shadow Kingdom is a production of Crooked Media and Campside Media. It's hosted and reported by ME Nicolomini, with additional reporting by Simon Adzeki and Joe Hawthorne. The show is written by Joe Hawthorne, Ashley Ann Krigbaum, and me. Joe Hawthorne is our lead producer and Ashley Ann Krigbaum is our managing producer. Tracy Samuelson is our story editor. Sound design, mix and mastering by Mark McAdam. Our theme song and original score are composed by me and Mark McAdam. Our studio engineer is Ewan Lai Tremuin. Voice acting by Bonnie Biagini, Andrea Bianchi, Ferrante Cosma, Luca de Gennaro, Michele Teodori and Mustafa Zialin. Field recording by Justin Trieger, Jonathan Zenti, Pete Scheve, Jonathan Gruber and Joanna Broder. Fact checking by Zoe Sullivan. Our executive producers are me, Nicolomini, along with Sarah Geismer, Katie Long and Allison Falsetta from Crooked Media. Josh Dean, Adam Hoff, Matt Sher and Vanessa Gregoriadis are the executive producers at Campsite Media. One last thing before we go. You can also listen to Shadow Kingdom in Italian. Look up Il banchiere di Dio wherever you get your podcasts.