Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1448619
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 FEBRUARY 2022 MATTHEW VELLA THE Vatican bank IOR has had a request for a prohibitory in- junction against a property fi- nance fund turned down by the Maltese courts. In a continuation of a le- gal dispute over a €17 million claim for damages, the Maltese courts rejected a warrant of prohibitory injunction which the Istituto per le Opere di Re- ligione filed against a subsidi- ary of the Futura Funds SICAV, a Maltese umbrella fund. The IOR had declared in court it had been caught up in a "menacing web of intrigue and suspicious transactions", in a ruse by Futura's Italian finan- ciers that hived off millions in- to a property company owned by offshore firms in Dubai and Panama. The Vatican's cash was in- vested by Futura's subsidiary, the Kappa Fund, in a Luxem- bourg property company, Cou- gar Real Estate, in 2013, for the purpose of acquiring the his- toric Budapest stock exchange, the Exchange Palace. The IOR has accused Futura of having used the Vatican's money to buy the company that owned the Exchange Pal- ace but making an undeclared profit of €11.6 million in the process, by duping the Vatican on the price of the Hungarian deal. "Futura strongly denies all wrongdoing, claiming that the investment was precisely performed in the very terms, which had been openly dis- cussed with, and fully approved by, IOR's own external advisors and top managers of the time," the company said in a state- ment to MaltaToday on the court decision. Futura's spokesperson said it was the IOR which, following a change in management upon the election of Pope Francis, that reneged on a €24 million capital commitment with Futu- ra for a real estate project. The IOR's recent request for injunction was to prevent Cou- gar Real Estate, the 90% owner of the Exchange Palace, from transferring the property. But the Maltese courts said the IOR failed to prove the elements re- quired for injunction. Futura's spokesperson said that even disgraced Cardinal George Pell – imprisoned for over a year as a registered sex offender – wrote in his 'Prison Journal' that in 2017 the Vati- can authorities had negotiated a settlement on the Futura dis- pute, but that its final approval was blocked by the Vatican au- thorities. "What is is quite difficult to understand is why IOR keeps undertaking unscrupulous and abusive legal strategies in order to sink this important project and create great damage to the Kappa Fund, of which it is one of the investors," Futura's counsel Andrea Suriano said. "Futura has reasons to believe that this information is hidden to the most at the IOR and in the Vatican, among a fierce clash of factions that followed the resignation of Pope Bene- dict." Suriano insists the Kappa Fund's investment in the Ex- change Palace was legitimate and would have brought in a significant €30 million re- turn for all investors, the IOR included "had it not been ir- responsibly disrupted by the Vatican Bank to self-inflict a damage as evidence against former top managers – a tri- al for them of crucial political importance – as it is finally emerging very clearly." Other cases were filed and may still be ongoing in the Bu- dapest and Luxembourg courts, apart from those in Malta. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Vatican Bank IOR's prohibitory injunction against Malta- based property investment fund has been turned down, as saga over multi-million investment in Budapest property continues Vatican's €17 million injunction on Malta property fund reversed According to the Italian financiers sued by the Vatican, it was the IOR bank (pictured above) which, following a change in management upon the election of Pope Francis, reneged on a €24 million capital commitment for a real estate project. The case is being heard in Malta THE IOR claims it handed over millions to Futura to manage and invest. A joint committee decided it would invest €30 million, part of which to buy out a non-performing loan issued to the owner of the Ex- change Palace. The loan would then be con- verted into an 84% share of the Hungarian company that owns the Exchange Palace. To do this, IOR pooled in €21 million of its cash in 'class B' shares in Futura's Kappa fund, together with other investors to raise the cash to buy the loan. The IOR however claims Fu- tura used a Luxembourg firm, Cougar Real Estate, to first buy 90% of the Hungarian company that owns the Ex- change Palace. Cougar then spent €20.4 million to acquire the bank loan; while the Kap- pa fund investors' cash was used to buy Cougar's shares for €32 million. That result- ed in an instant €11.6 million that went to Cougar's owners – an offshore Dubai company called Holdabco, and minority shareholder, a Panamanian firm called Alpininvestisse- ments. The IOR insists it was misled, because its cash has to be used buy Kappa shares and then invested directly in the Budapest development. Instead, it claims the realised profit took IOR's cash away from it and into the hands of Cougar's owners."It is clear that the IOR has been abu- sively caught up in a menac- ing web of intrigue and suspi- cious transactions," the IOR's lawyers in Malta complained. Futura Funds' former direc- tor Alberto Matta was also a director of Cougar Real Es- tate, and was accused by IOR of having inflated the price for the Hungarian loan. Matta is no longer a director of the SICAV. Vatican accusations Futura's general counsel Andrea Suriano insists the Kappa Fund's investment in the Exchange Palace was legitimate. The Vatican claims the investment fund made a huge profit by performing a different kind of transaction