Vatican appeals court upholds convictions of ex-bank chiefs

ROME (AP) — A Vatican appeals court has upheld the convictions of two former managers of the Vatican bank and ordered them to pay back some 40 million euros from bad investments over a decade ago.

The court originally convicted Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli in 2018 and held them liable for mismanagement. The two resigned in 2013.

In a statement Friday, the Institute for Religious Works, as the bank is known. said the Vatican appeals court had rejected the managers' appeals in full.

The bank, which long had a reputation as an offshore tax haven, has undergone a years-long reform process so it would no longer be a source of scandal for the Holy See.

The Institute for Religious Works is not open to the public but provides financial services to Vatican employees, diplomats, religious orders and the Holy See’s embassies overseas.

The Vatican court convicted Cipriani and Tulli’s predecessor at the bank in a separate trial. In that case, the court last year found Angelo Caloia and his lawyer guilty of embezzlement and other charges related to sales of Vatican real estate estate.

The court sentenced them to nearly nine years in prison each. Caloia and the lawyer are appealing.