biography
| name: |
Calvi, Robert
|
| |
originally Gian Roberto Calvini
|
pronunciation:
[kalvee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1920–82)
|
| biography:
| Banker and financier, born in Milan, N Italy. Working his way up through Banco Ambrosiano, he became its chairman in 1975, and continued to build a vast financial empire. In 1978, a report by the Bank of Italy on Ambrosiano concluded that several billion lire had been illegally exported. In May 1981, he was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment, but released pending an appeal. By 1982, his bank, on the verge of financial collapse, was temporarily saved by patronage letters from the Vatican's bank which, under the leadership of Paul Marcinckus, had jointly perpetrated with Ambrosiano several dubious business deals. Calvi's body was found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London (19 Jun). A verdict of suicide was recorded, which was overturned in 1983, when an inquest delivered an open verdict on the death. The ramifications of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, and of the involvement of the Vatican and possibly the Mafia continued well after his death. In 2003, a panel of examining magistrates in Rome concluded that he had been murdered. |
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