London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Vatican-gate: more London luxury property deals revealed

Vatican-gate: more London luxury property deals revealed

Cardinal Becciu, forced to resign by the Pope last week, oversaw Knightsbridge purchases

The cardinal who oversaw the team at the heart of a Vatican investigation into a suspicious London property deal conducted additional investments of up to £100m in other London luxury apartments, documents show.

Documents including emails and financial accounts seen by the Financial Times show that Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, whom Pope Francis forced to resign last week, invested Vatican funds into a portfolio of ultra-prime flats in and around Cadogan Square, Knightsbridge, one of the most expensive residential addresses in London.

The revelations of additional high-end London property acquisitions decided by the 72-year-old Italian clergyman come as Vatican magistrates are investigating a separate €350m investment in a large building in Chelsea called 60 Sloane Avenue, which Cardinal Becciu also oversaw when it was made in 2014.

The Holy See has said the Sloane Avenue deal caused large losses. A London-based businessman, Gianluigi Torzi, was charged and arrested by the Vatican authorities with “extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and self laundering” for payments made to him for his role as a middleman in the purchase. The Italian, who was released from custody, denies wrong doing.

The new documents, which do not suggest any wrongdoing, shed further light on the financial activities of the powerful Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s central administration office whose mission is also to invest hundreds of millions of euros of donations from Catholics.

Cardinal Becciu was second-in-command of the Secretariat between 2011 and 2018, a role that made him the third most influential man in the Holy See after the Pope. On Friday, he said he had been asked to resign by Pope Francis and vowed to defend himself against all accusations of mismanagement of Vatican funds.

“The Pope told me that he no longer had faith in me because he got a report from magistrates that I committed an act of misappropriation,” Cardinal Becciu said last week. “I accepted his request to step aside. But I am innocent, and I will show it.” He said the allegations were separate from the Secretariat's investment in London property.



The documents show Cardinal Becciu oversaw a development that involved buying three apartments on 7-9 Cadogan Square for a total of £19.25m and spending £1.25m on redecoration and building reforms, including £39,000 on fireplaces, £52,000 on flooring and £7,000 on wallpaper, a document outlining the refurbishments shows.

The Secretariat also purchased 25 Cadogan Square as well as apartments located on 28-29 Hans Place and 130 Pavilion Road.

The acquisitions amounted to £95.75m. That total was partly funded with mortgages from the now defunct Swiss bank BSI, and Rothschild, according to details of the loan agreements seen by the FT.

The development plan was managed by a British company called Sloane and Cadogan, with an aim of selling the refurbished apartments on at a profit. The properties were purchased by the Secretariat of State through four Jersey-incorporated companies named Charybdis, Princeps, Civitas and Valerina, according to corporate filings.

Sloane and Cadogan, which is not suspected of any wrongdoing, declined to comment.

Cardinal Becciu did not respond to emailed questions. He had previously said that investments in London property was accepted Vatican practice and a responsible use of money entrusted to the Secretariat.

In 2017, three years after the initial investment, two Vatican officials reporting to Cardinal Becciu - Alberto Perlasca and Fabrizio Tirabassi - informed Sloane and Cadogan that a different investment company based in Switzerland called Valeur was to be given part of the fees charged to manage and develop the properties, according to correspondence seen by the FT.

Both Mr Perlasca and Mr Tirabassi have been suspended by the Vatican authorities as part of the continuing investigation into the 60 Sloane Avenue investment. That investment was separate and not linked to the Cadogan Square developments.


Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, left, with the Pope in Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in 2018


In a letter dated March 2017 seen by the FT, Sloane and Cadogan executives complained to the two now suspended Vatican officials that Valeur had “little or no expertise in the demanding UK super-prime real estate market . . . It is therefore unclear as to how they could advance and add value to the fund’s investments.”

The Sloane and Cadogan executives eventually declined Mr Perlasca and Mr Tirabassi’s request to insert Valeur into the project, according to people with knowledge of the exchange, and the deal never happened.

Valeur told the FT that its executives had never met Cardinal Becciu and had “a limited number of contacts strictly in relation to technical matters” with Mr Perlasca when the Secretariat requested it was made an “investment adviser”.

Valeur said it was not subject to any investigation by the Vatican or any other legal authority, had not received any request for information and had not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Mr Perlasca did not respond to emailed questions about the reason behind his request to insert Valeur into the management of the London properties. When Cardinal Becciu was asked last week if he or the Secretariat had ever done business with Valeur, he said: “I have never heard of these men.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×