Giorgio Ambrosoli
Italian lawyer and assassination victim (1933–1979)
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Key Takeaways
- Giorgio Ambrosoli ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo ambroˈzɔːli] ; 17 October 1933 – 11 July 1979) was an Italian lawyer who was gunned down while investigating the malpractice of banker Michele Sindona.
- He provided the US Justice Department with evidence to convict Sindona for his role in the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.
- 6 million commission to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker".
- Death On 11 July 1979, only hours after talking to US authorities, Ambrosoli was shot dead by three Mafia hitmen commissioned by Michele Sindona.
- Shortly before he was killed, the American Mafia hitman William Arico, a convicted bank robber, invoked the name of Giulio Andreotti – the influential Christian Democrat politician close to Sindona – in a threatening phone call taped by Ambrosoli.
Giorgio Ambrosoli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo ambroˈzɔːli]; 17 October 1933 – 11 July 1979) was an Italian lawyer who was gunned down while investigating the malpractice of banker Michele Sindona.
Liquidating Sindona's financial empire
Appointed by the court as liquidator of the Banca Privata Italiana, one of the Italian banks controlled by Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, which was forced into liquidation, he found evidence of criminal manipulations. He provided the US Justice Department with evidence to convict Sindona for his role in the collapse of the Franklin National Bank.
According to Ambrosoli, Sindona paid a US$5.6 million commission to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker". Official Italian sources confirmed that it concerned Paul Marcinkus, of the Vatican Bank, and Roberto Calvi, president of Banco Ambrosiano.
Death
On 11 July 1979, only hours after talking to US authorities, Ambrosoli was shot dead by three Mafia hitmen commissioned by Michele Sindona.
Sindona feared that Ambrosoli would expose his manipulations in the Banca Privata Italiana case. Shortly before he was killed, the American Mafia hitman William Arico, a convicted bank robber, invoked the name of Giulio Andreotti – the influential Christian Democrat politician close to Sindona – in a threatening phone call taped by Ambrosoli. Arico fell to his death while trying to escape from a federal prison in New York in 1984. Andreotti later replied in an interview that Ambrosoli "was a person who, in Romanesque words, was looking for it".
In 1986 Sindona was sentenced to life imprisonment for having ordered the murder.
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