(Article obtained by a friend of the webmaster of www.puritans.net . )

This is a link from the Kansas City Star, found at a website entitled
VaticanBankClaims.com.  The website itself is maintained by Serbs.  These
Serbs are also suing the Vatican Bank for money that was looted by the
Croatians from the dead bodies of slaughtered Serbs at the hands of Pavelic
in WW II.  These funds were then illegally transferred to the Vatican Bank.

The Serbs, having long been railroaded by the Vatican for these war crimes,
is now documenting other instances of financial fraud which the Vatican has
perpetrated.  The link below from the Kansas City Star, accordingly, is
provided by them.

Seems that now, the State of Missouri--specifically, the Department of
Insurance--with four other States--has just filed suit against the Vatican
Bank, in Federal court in Jackson, Mississippi.

The body of the suit involves these charges:
 
 "The lawsuit stems from an alleged scam headed by financier Martin
 Frankel, who is charged with racketeering in Connecticut. Frankel is
 accused of buying insurance companies, including one registered in
 Missouri, then siphoning the insurers' cash reserves and using them to
 purchase mansions, cars, diamonds and gold.
  
 He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
 
 
 Frankel fled to Germany in 1999 after Mississippi insurance regulators
 began asking questions about a charity with ties to the Vatican that
 Frankel had allegedly used as a "front" to purchase insurance
 companies...."
 
 
   Posted on Sat, May. 11, 2002
 
_________________________________________________________________________________________
 
   Missouri regulators sue Vatican
 
   By MARK MORRIS
   The Kansas City Star
 
 
   Missouri regulators have sued the Vatican, alleging that Roman Catholic
   Church officials conspired to launder millions of dollars looted in one
   of the largest scandals to rock the U.S. insurance industry.
 
   Joining officials from four other states, the Missouri Department of
   Insurance filed the federal lawsuit late Thursday in Jackson, Miss.,
   seeking to recover more than $200 million from the Vatican.
 
   The lawsuit stems from an alleged scam headed by financier Martin
   Frankel, who is charged with racketeering in Connecticut. Frankel is
   accused of buying insurance companies, including one registered in
   Missouri, then siphoning the insurers' cash reserves and using them to
   purchase mansions, cars, diamonds and gold.
 
   He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
 
   Frankel fled to Germany in 1999 after Mississippi insurance regulators
   began asking questions about a charity with ties to the Vatican that
   Frankel had allegedly used as a "front" to purchase insurance companies.
 
   Randy McConnell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Insurance,
   said suing the the Vatican was not a step the state took lightly.
 
   "There were people in the Vatican acting in a secular capacity that
   helped facilitate Frankel and his scheme," McConnell said. "All we are
   asking from this lawsuit is that the Vatican, in its secular capacity,
   be held to the same standards as other people and institutions."
 
   The Vatican's embassy in Washington D.C., declined to comment and
   referred questions to its press office in Rome, which was closed Friday.
 
   In a 1999 statement, however, the church said that neither the charity
   nor another foundation that also is a defendant in the lawsuit fell
   under the Vatican's jurisdiction.
 
   According to the lawsuit, Frankel's connection to the church was
   Monsignor Emilio Colagiovanni, a senior member of the Curia, or Vatican
   government, and an appellate judge in the church courts. In the late
   1990s, Colagiovanni was the president of Monitor Ecclesiasticus, a
   religious and charitable foundation that publishes the decisions of
   Vatican courts.
 
   Colagiovanni has been charged with wire fraud and money laundering, and
   is free on bond.
 
   His attorney, John R. Gulash, declined to comment on the lawsuit or the
   charges against Colagiovanni.
 
   According to the lawsuit, Frankel established a charity -- the St.
   Francis of Assisi Foundation to Serve and Help the Poor and Alleviate
   Suffering -- that he would use to acquire insurance companies, using
   money that he already had looted in prior insurance schemes.
 
   Colagiovanni allegedly used his foundation to make it appear as if St.
   Francis' funding came from Vatican sources, and assured others that St.
   Francis was legitimate.
 
   "(Colagiovanni) used his position as a member of the Curia to convince
   state government officials and insurance companies in the United States
   that St. Francis was connected with the Vatican through Monitor
   Ecclesiasticus, and that St. Francis was a Vatican-funded initiative,"
   the lawsuit contends.
 
   In return, Frankel agreed to transfer $5 million to a Monitor
   Ecclesiasticus account that Colagiovanni controlled, according to the
   lawsuit.
 
   Colagiovanni also is alleged to have escorted executives from an
   insurance company on a private Vatican tour to assure them that St.
   Francis had received Vatican money.
 
   The lawsuit further alleges that senior Vatican officials approved the
   scheme and took no action to repudiate Colagiovanni's
   misrepresentations.
 
   "High-ranking officials at the Vatican authorized or ratified the plan
   whereby Monitor Ecclesiasticus would be used as a conduit for the flow
   of Frankel's money to St. Francis to purchase U.S. insurance companies,
   which St. Francis claimed a `Vatican tie.' "
 
   The insurance commissioners of the five states are already seeking more
   than $600 million in damages from Frankel in a lawsuit filed in 2000.
   The latest lawsuit was filed under federal racketeering statutes, which
   allow for actual damages to be tripled. A final judgment in this case
   could top $600 million.
 
   Missouri officials became involved in the case when a company registered
   in the state, International Financial Services Life Insurance Co., was
   declared insolvent in May 1999.
 
   Frankel acquired International Financial Services through a holding
   company in 1994. International Financial Services was registered in
   Missouri but had no offices there. It was licensed to provide modest
   burial plans in 40 states, but it had only one licensed agent in
   Missouri.
   
   Officials have estimated that the company lost $57 million in the scam.