Bergoglio ignores pleas of Maradiaga victims of fraud - who "spent a lot of money to help him become a Cardinal"

Bergoglio friend and confidant Oscar Maradiaga has been implicated in financial fraud. The corruption and investigation of the Bishop of Rome's advisor began in December. Now, it is revealed of a direct case where friends of Maradiaga were taken in by him and Vatican officials, including Bergoglio, have done nothing.

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http://espresso.repubblica.it/inchieste/2018/02/05/news/maradiaga-conti-dubbi-1.317885

"Deceived and betrayed, they stole everything." The charges against the Pope's right arm

The wife of the former head of the Vatican Diplomatic Corps speaks. "The cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, our brotherly friend for 40 years, in 2012 has pushed us to invest our money with a London financier who then disappeared into thin air. I spoke with Francesco and Parolin, but the investigation of the Holy See has been firm for a year.  

BY EMILIANO FITTIPALDI

“You wrote well. Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, the right-hand man of Pope Francis, has deceived us.  In 2012, he pushed me and my husband to invest a lot of money into a London investment fund, managed by a Muslim friend, Youssry Henien, who then disappeared into nothing with our money. I told everything to Pope Francis, even before his apostolic visitor who conducted an investigation in Honduras. But a year has passed, and neither I nor other victims have obtained justice. It's a shame. My husband and I have welcomed our Maradiaga home for 40 years, and he has repaid this way ".

Martha Alegria Reichmann shows her photos and her daughters together with the high cardinal. "He betrayed us, he destroyed us," he repeats as if he were still incredulous of what happened. Everyone in the Vatican knows it. Martha is, in fact, the wife of former powerful Dean of the Vatican Diplomatic Corps Alejandro Valladares, for 22 years ambassador of Honduras to the Holy See. A good friend of Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who made a moving funeral eulogy at the end of 2013.

'Espresso contacted the Reichmann after hearing that the Pope had opened an inquiry into the diocese of Tegucigalpa, the episcopal seat of Cardinal Maradiaga. Not just any cardinal, but a prelate very close to Bergoglio, who became his principal advisor following his election to the Petrine throne. Coordinator of the C9, the group of nine cardinals advising the pontiff in the management of the universal church and in the reform of the curia, in May 2017 he and his auxiliary bishop Juan Pineda were accused of serious events by a series of Honduran witnesses, who handed over sworn depositions to Pedro Casaretto, the Argentine bishop sent by Francesco to investigate a diocese that has been for too long a chat.

The report for almost a year is in the hands of the pontiff, who for now has not made any decision about it. The people listened to are fifty, and among them is the widow Valladares.

"I hesitated to have you interviewed by me because I hoped until the end that justice was done without raising a public scandal. 40 years of fraternal friendship bound me to Cardinal Maradiaga. We shared beautiful and ugly things, but trust in them has always been blind. And vice-versa. When he returned to our home after the last conclave he told what had happened. He even told us that he had convinced Bergoglio to accept the investiture because initially the Pope would have said he was not in perfect health, he was worried about having only one lung. Intimacy was absolute. He told my husband and me that we were his family. He knows very well that my husband spent a lot of money in the Vatican in 2001 to help him become a cardinal. At the time Maradiaga certainly had many merits, as he explained to Casaretto almost a year ago ("I was in Tegucigalpa, the apostolic visitor called fifty witnesses to present our denunciations against Pineda." The statements were made before a crucifix and with one hand over the Bible " ), Reichmann confirms that the story begins in 2012,when the cardinal suggests to her and the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps to make an investment with a London company, Leman Wealth Management. "He was a guest at our house in Rome, as always when he came to the Vatican from Honduras. One evening he was the one who put Leman's speech in the middle, suddenly. My husband and I had never heard the name of the company or that of its owner, such as Henien. Maradiaga assured us that this financial was serious, and made investments in Switzerland, Germany and other European countries. He stressed that the investment allowed high interest rates and that he was more than sure, adding that he too had invested the money of the diocese of Tegucigalpa. "

Maradiaga,  when a month ago the Espresso published the investigation on money   (about 35 thousand euro a month) received from the Catholic university owned by the diocese, not only said that the sums went to the diocese that turned them to the neediest (in official budget found then by who writes, however, there is no trace of the sums of the university). But he also strongly denied that the archbishopric ever authorized "these types of investments", even denying that he knew Henien's society. In short, it does not accept any accusation of "fraudulent intermediation".

The widow shakes her head. "My husband was very skeptical about the operation. He was persuaded by the insistence of the cardinal, who told us he had done the necessary checks, and that everything was clean and safe. It was Maradiaga who gave us the contacts of Mr. Henien. " The two friends of the cardinal decide to try, they know the London financier and entrust all their savings. The amount is specified in the documents held by the Espresso. After a year, however, when the ambassador is dead, the widow and her daughters realize that something is wrong. There is nothing on the accounts where Henien had said he had put the savings of a lifetime. The financier is untraceable. The Leman Wealth Management results from the data of the London Chamber of Commerce, closed in November 2012.

"We realized we were cheated. We did investigations and found that this financier was already finished in the past in similar situations. I tried to contact Maradiaga but was denied for months and months. I went to the Tegucigalpa cathedral when he celebrated mass, and I managed to exchange a few words. He told me that he was an injured party like us, that he too had lost money from the diocese, but he asked me for discretion. I told him that I had already entrusted the case to an Italian law firm based in London but that the costs of the case were very high. He offered to help us and gave us the money to start legal procedures. On that same occasion, he ordered me never to say that it was he himself who introduced us to Henien. "

The widow of the ambassador knows that his accusations are heavy. "I saw that after your first investigation he said there would be a plot against the Pope. But it's ridiculous to think that my daughters and my daughters, friends of the cardinal, have always been able to lie and invent a story like this by harming a person to whom we gave everything. The Holy Father, whom I met last November, ordered an investigation into Pineda. A man whom Maradiaga has been protecting for years. I was also contacted because five years ago I denounced Pineda for theft, also he betrayed my husband when he was in agony and did not have the means to defend himself. I told Casaretto that my complaint was hidden for years, Maradiaga - whom I still considered a beacon - had strongly insisted that I not present it.

In fact, in Casaretto's report, there are some reports of priests and former highly detailed and very serious seminarians on the behaviour of the prelate whom Maradiaga referred to as his auxiliary. "His victims now live in fear, because they have reported Pineda and see that nothing has happened. They understood that Pineda is protected by Oscar, and it seems clear to me that Maradiaga is protected by the Pope ".

From the Vatican, despite the attempts made, no one has so far wanted to comment on the accusations of Martha, nor those of the other witnesses against Pineda and the cardinal. Casaretto's dossier ended first in the Congregation of Bishops, then in Francesco's drawer. "I asked for an audience with the Pope and I was received by him on November 21st. He told me he was aware of all my history and that he had already given directions to the secretariat of state to solve everything. " Martha hopes to get back the lost money from Henien, perhaps with an intervention by the man who had put them in touch. "It's been three months, I spoke with Parolin and his secretaries, who proposed me a few days ago a solver meeting with Maradiaga in the Vatican. I was hoping a lot. But after a long wait, the meeting is skipped. Is it possible that a cardinal ignores the Pope's wishes? I have heard that he refers to me as mad and that I will never succeed in regaining what I have lost. Maybe. But I'm tired of being teased, and I decided to tell all the pain that caused me. I am the first victim to take this step, but I know that others will follow my example. "

The widow closes her purse and gets up. We do not know if he has the necessary evidence to convince the Pope of the truthfulness of his accusations against his right-hand man and his most loyal ones. But he certainly does not look like a madman, nor a dangerous conspirator belonging to some conservative faction that wants to hit Francis's reforms. "I hope the Pope will help me. He greeted me with words of comfort, promising that I would have justice. He told me how he was a father full of love. "