Vatican Bank Chief Bounced

'I have paid for my transparency,' Ettore Gotti Tedeschi says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2012 2:56 AM CDT
Updated May 25, 2012 3:47 AM CDT
Vatican Bank Chief Bounced
The Vatican bank's board accused chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi of presiding over a fall in standards.   (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, file)

The chief of the secretive Vatican bank has been given the boot for allegedly letting standards slip at the institution. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was forced to resign after the bank's board of directors unanimously passed a no-confidence vote against him for failing "to carry out duties of primary importance," the BBC reports. Italian police investigated Gotti Tedeschi as part of a money-laundering probe in 2010, but that's not believed to have been a factor in his ouster.

The Italian economist was appointed in 2009 as part of a drive for greater transparency, and he says he was forced out because of his honest way of doing things. "I have paid for my transparency, " he tells Reuters. Memos leaked earlier this year hinted at clashes between senior Vatican officials over how open the bank should be about its dealings. In March, the US State Department placed the Vatican on its list of countries considered vulnerable to money laundering. (More Vatican stories.)

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