Mr Mincione, through his lawyers, expressed “relief that, after years of being wrongly accused by the Vatican of stealing its money, the English Commercial Court has fully rejected the Vatican’s case that I or the Athena Capital fund or WRM Group were dishonest or part of any conspiracy or fraud in relation to the negotiation and sale relating to the 60 Sloane Avenue building in 2018.”.
He said Mr Mincione did not know, as alleged, that Mr Torzi was “intending to perpetrate a fraud“, but he also did not step in to alert The Vatican to Mr Torzi’s unscrupulous activities.
Mr Justice Robin Knowles said his ruling had rejected serous accusations levelled against Mr Mincione, but he added: “In my judgment, on the facts shown at trial the Claimants fell below the standards of communication with the State that could be described as good faith conduct.
The judge said Mr Mincione has, in November 2018, “represented …that the value of the property was £275 million“, and while he had a legitimate interest in securing a high sale price for the property he was “not frank and was misleading“ about how the figure had been reached.
Mr Mincione, who denies dishonestly hiking the price of the property, stressed during the legal battle that he advised The Vatican that it was investing in a project, not just a property, which could in time have risen to a value of £400 million.
