| Giorgio Ambrosoli | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 17, 1933 Milan, Italy |
| Died | July 11, 1979 (aged 45) Milan, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Giorgio Ambrosoli (October 17, 1933 - July 11, 1979) was an Italian lawyer who was killed while investigating the malpractice of banker Michele Sindona.
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Appointed by the court as liquidator of the Banca Privata Italiana, one of the Italian banks controlled by Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, which was forced into liquidation, he found evidences of criminal manipulations.[1] He provided the US Justice Department with evidence to convict Sindona for his role in the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.[2]
According to Ambrosoli, Sindona paid a US$5.6 million commission to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker." Official Italian sources confirmed that it concerned Paul Marcinkus, of the Vatican Bank, and Roberto Calvi, President of Banco Ambrosiano.[3]
On July 11, 1979, only hours after talking to US authorities, he was shot dead by three Mafia hitman commissioned by Michele Sindona.[3][4]
Sindona feared that Ambrosoli would expose his manipulations in the Banca Privata Italiana case. Shortly before he was killed, the American Mafia hitman William Arico, a convicted bank robber, invoked the name of Giulio Andreotti – the influential Christian Democrat politician close to Sindona – in a threathening phone call taped by Ambrosoli .[5] Arico fell to his death while trying to escape from a federal prison in New York in 1984.[6]
In 1986 Sindona was sentenced to life imprisonment for having ordered the murder.[2][6][7]
According to the Mafia turncoat (pentito) Francesco Marino Mannoia, Sindona laundered the proceeds of heroin trafficking for the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network. The mafiosi were determined to get their money back and would have played an important role in Sindona's attempt to save his banks.[8]
Ambrosoli was killed shortly after he had a talk with Palermo Police chief Boris Giuliano, who discovered cheques and other documents which indicated that Sindona had been recycling the proceeds from heroin sales by the Mafia through the Vatican Bank to his Amincor Bank in Switzerland. Ten days after the killing of Ambrosoli, Giuliano was shot and killed by the Mafia on July 21, 1979.[9]
Ambrosoli was posthumously awarded with a medal for civic heroism. In 1995 a film about him was made, entitled A Middle-Class Hero, directed by Michele Placido.[4][10]