Malta-based fund linked to Vatican finance scandal fined by FIAU

A Malta-based fund that is linked to a scandal involving Vatican finances, has been fined €68,899 by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

The FIAU, an anti-money laundering agency, issued an administrative penalty to Centurion Global Fund SICAV plc because the company failed to obtain the necessary supporting documentation for transactions executed by customers. The scant data concerned customers’ source of wealth and source of funds.

The FIAU said Centurion “was not implementing robust and timely controls over the investments undertaken by its customers, especially when nominee entities were investing for and on behalf of end customers”.

“The processing of millions of euros without adequate checks in place was identified as an unmanaged risk that could have led to the unintentional facilitation of money laundering and the financing of terrorism,” the agency added.

Centurion is a collective investment scheme used primarily by the Vatican’s secretariat of state to invest money that came from donations from all around the world. The Vatican had used Centurion to invest among others in Hollywood films, including Elton John’s biopic, Rocketman.

In 2020, Pope Francis had ordered the Vatican’s secretary of state to transfer all its financial holdings to another Vatican office, amid a corruption investigation involving donations and dubious investments.

The FIAU’s decision was posted on its website three days ago and the review was based on an off-site compliance examination carried out in October 2020.

In one example cited by the FIAU, Centurion had classified a customer as low risk despite processing €60 million within an 18-month period.

Centurion suspended the customer’s account following adverse media reportage and initiated several requests for information to acquire a confirmation regarding the identity of the underlying investor. However, the FIAU said that what concerned the review committee

was the company’s failure, in view of the considerable value of the investments undertaken, to query about the underlying investor and obtain the necessary information before the adverse media reporting came to light.

“This concern is exacerbated by the fact that the company’s exposure to customer file B was substantial when compared to the rest of its customer base, and the transactions carried out by this customer far exceeded what is customary for the company to process vis-à-vis its other customers,” the FIAU said.