ROME (AP) — European evaluators are warning that the Vatican’s efforts to investigate and prosecute financial crimes are suffering from understaffing and inexperience. The Council of Europe’s Moneyval commission issued a report into the Holy See’s compliance with international norms to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. Overall, the evaluators gave the Holy See good grades, finding that it was complying with most standards, had taken steps to improve its laws and had achieved effective levels of international cooperation. But the evaluators complained that Vatican prosecutors had only managed to bring a handful of money laundering cases to trial in the past decade. They also said the sentences handed down to date were so “minimal” that they provided no deterrent.
