Michele Sindona

Michele Sindona
Michele Sindona
Born	Template:Birth date; Patti, Sicily, Italy
Died	March 22, 1986 (aged 65); Voghera prison hospital, Italy
Occupation(s)	Banker, financier
Known for	Financier for Sicilian Mafia and Vatican, involvement in Franklin National Bank collapse, assassination of Giorgio Ambrosoli

Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted criminal, famously nicknamed "The Shark" within financial circles. He acted as a financier for both the Sicilian Mafia and the Vatican, and was affiliated with the clandestine Masonic organization Propaganda Due. Sindona died from poisoning while incarcerated, serving a life sentence for the assassination of attorney Giorgio Ambrosoli.

Early life and education

Sindona was born in Patti, Sicily, to a father from Naples who worked as a florist and a Sicilian mother. Educated by Jesuit instructors, he demonstrated early proficiency in mathematics and economics. He completed his law studies at the University of Messina in 1942.

Career

Following the conclusion of World War II, Sindona became involved in Mafia-related smuggling operations, distributing food supplies under Allied control. By 1946, his capital had doubled through black market dealings as he awaited guidance from Meyer Lansky, a prominent mob financier.

In the early 1950s, Sindona relocated to Milan where he practiced tax law for affluent clients aiming to minimize their tax liabilities. He handled accounting duties for leading firms such as Società Generale Immobiliare and SNIA Viscosa. At age thirty, he founded Fasco AG and introduced back-to-back financing techniques. His expertise in transferring funds to Swiss and Liechtenstein accounts to avoid taxes attracted Mafia interest.

By 1957, Sindona had forged ties with New York’s Gambino crime family and oversaw laundering their heroin earnings. According to pentito Francesco Marino Mannoia, Sindona managed money laundering for the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino alliance. These underworld connections played a crucial role in his later attempts to salvage his banking enterprises.

International banker

Within a year of handling Gambino narcotics profits, Sindona acquired his initial banking institution. By the early 1960s, he was associated with Giovanni Battista Montini, then Archbishop of Milan and Cardinal. In 1964, Sindona capitalized on the emerging offshore Eurodollar market through an arrangement with a London-based banker. When Montini ascended to the papacy as Pope Paul VI, Sindona's holding company Fasco had gained control over multiple Italian banks and commenced collaboration with the Vatican Bank in 1969. Significant fund transfers occurred from Sindona’s banks through the Vatican to Swiss financial institutions, facilitating extensive currency speculation.

In 1972, Fasco International Holding acquired a majority stake in Franklin National Bank on Long Island from Laurence Tisch. Sindona was hailed as "the savior of the lira" and honored as "Man of the Year" by US ambassador John Volpe in 1974. Nevertheless, a stock market collapse that April led to Il Crack Sindona ("The Sindona Bankruptcy"). Franklin National Bank’s earnings dropped by 98%, causing a $40 million loss for Sindona. Consequently, he forfeited most of the banking assets he had amassed over seventeen years. On 8 October 1974, Franklin National Bank was declared insolvent due to mismanagement and fraudulent activities involving foreign exchange speculation and bad loans. Part of these losses resulted from Sindona transferring $30 million from bank accounts to Europe to cover his personal deficits.

Sindona also became a member of Propaganda Due (P2), a secretive Masonic lodge implicated in various political controversies.

Ambrosoli assassination, 1979

On 11 July 1979, Giorgio Ambrosoli, the lawyer designated as the liquidator for Sindona's banks, was assassinated in Milan by Mafia contract killers hired by Sindona. Ambrosoli was probing financial misconduct within Banca Privata Italiana and represented a significant threat to Sindona's interests. Prior to this event, American Mafia enforcer William Arico made a menacing phone call referencing Giulio Andreotti, a powerful Christian Democrat politician closely linked to Sindona. Arico later died in 1984 while attempting to flee federal custody in New York. Andreotti sparked controversy by stating that Ambrosoli "was asking for it."

Incarceration, 1980–1986

In 1980, Sindona faced conviction in the United States on 65 counts, including fraud, perjury, falsifying bank documents, and embezzlement; his defense team was led by noted attorney Ivan Fisher. The federal court in Manhattan sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment due to his role in the Franklin National Bank failure and imposed a fine of $207,000.

During his imprisonment, Italy successfully secured his extradition to stand trial for Ambrosoli's murder. Sindona was transferred back to Italy on 25 September 1984 and detained at Voghera. On 16 March 1985, he was handed a 12-year sentence for fraudulent bankruptcy connected to Banca Privata Italiana and mandated to immediately pay two billion lire to the bank’s liquidators and shareholders affected.

On 18 March 1986, Sindona received a life sentence for orchestrating Ambrosoli’s assassination.

Personal life and death

Just two days following his life sentence verdict, Sindona consumed potassium cyanide while incarcerated in Voghera prison. He passed away in hospital after spending two days in a coma on 22 March 1986.

External links and further reading

Article (in Italian) regarding Propaganda Due