01x01 - Too Many Suspects

[bunniefuu]

Roberto Calvi was one of the
most powerful figures in Italy.

When his corpse was
found, it was shocking.

The question of who k*lled
Calvi is who didn't k*ll Calvi.

[music playing]

It was a huge story.

God's banker found hanging
underneath Blackfriars Bridge.

It was just such an
extraordinary case.

It touched the top of Italy.

It was well connected,
a secret Masonic lodge.

The Vatican and the Mafia.

This man had so many enemies.

I don't think I've ever done
a case quite like this one.

From the very beginning, there
was some kind of conspiracy

to keep the truth under wraps.

They hadn't investigated
the scene properly.

They simply made a mess
of the investigation.

There were still
questions to be answered.

This story had everything.

Chicanery,
skullduggery, betrayals.

It is this mixture of
people from high and low.

Criminals and
murderers in contact

with Catholic Cardinals,
the Italian ministers,

and ultimately the Pope.

There was all sorts
of speculation.

He could have been k*lled
by any one of these enemies.

Roberto Calvi built
a house of cards,

but everything fell apart.

When the whole thing blew up
and all these things came out,

not just in Italy, but in
the international press,

it was a huge story.

[music playing]

Tito has been Calvi's
driver for years.

Calvi arrives at the
car like clockwork.

The rhythm of his Monday
through Friday rarely changing,

except on this day.

The banker wasn't there,
Tito reported him missing.

The head of Italy's
biggest private bank

about to go bankrupt
and he's disappeared.

Calvi has been missing them
for exactly a week now.

People are looking for
him internationally

and it's a very
high profile case.

Early in the morning
in London, a man

named Anthony Huntley, who
worked at the Daily Express

newspaper was walking across
Blackfriars Bridge on his way

to work.

He catches sight of
what appears to be

a man dangling from a rope.

This death took place
in the city of London,

which has its own separate
police force called

the City of London Police.

What did you see?

I saw a complete body
hanging by the neck

from a length of
yellow-orange string tied

to the top horizontal
scaffolding tube.

His feet were dangling
in the water, which

was up to his ankle bones.

The City Police are
accustomed to dealing

with financial crimes, and they
very rarely deal with murders.

They're a relatively
small force.

They just work in a fairly
small geographical area.

The rest of London has
the Metropolitan Police,

which is popularly
known as Scotland Yard.

They have a great
deal of experience

investigating murders.

The City of London
Police does not.

Dead bodies are fished out
from the Thames all the time.

Natural causes,
drowning, suicides, not

major international mysteries.

There were mistakes in the
handling of the crime scene.

He's not photographed in situ,
another automatic precaution

in a mysterious death.

If you suspected any
foul play of any kind,

you would want to have a
full set of photographs.

And they certainly were
photographing crime scenes

in the 1980s, absolutely.

And then of course,
they untied the knot.

You wouldn't do that.

You normally cut the rope,
so you had the knot intact.

The body has taken to the boat
to a nearby pier, laid out.

The British police
are handling this

as though it's the
death of a tr*mp.

It was not the shining hour
of the City of London Police.

There were the five
stones or part bricks

that had been recovered from
his pockets and his trousers.

One of the bricks
has been placed

in the crotch of his trousers
on top of his genitals.

They found $15,000 worth
of various currencies.

Calvi was wearing a watch.

The City Police had
not bothered to note

what time was on the
watch when they found it.

The police identified
him from his passport

as Gian Roberto Calvini.

They had an autopsy done by
the top forensic pathologist

in the UK.

He concluded that there
were no signs of struggle.

The suggestion is that he
might have loaded himself

up with bricks intending to
drown himself in the river.

Soon after this examination,
the accurate identification

of Calvi actually
happens very rapidly.

It's the head of
Rome special branch.

I believe you have our banker.

Calvini?

Roberto Calvi.

Calvi has been missing
from Rome since the 11th.

Well, the Italian
authorities had reported

that Calvi was missing.

He was head of one of the
largest banks in Italy

and was an advisor
to the Vatican bank.

He's also someone
who is involved

in all this shadowy
political intrigue

and a member of the
P2 Masonic Lodge.

The alternative
interpretation of the bricks

is a symbol of Freemasonry.

And he's been
ex*cuted in a way that

could happen to you if you
breach your oath of silence,

loyalty to Freemasonry.

And then he's found
under Blackfriars Bridge,

seen by many as another
reference to Freemasonry.

He's a member of this
secret underground Freemason

organization that counts some
of the most powerful people

in the country.

The City Police
weren't aware of this.

The Italian police were in
the Italian general public.

The British claim
to be indignant

that the Italians are
not sharing information

with them about the
background to his demise.

The British tabloids
were all over it.

It was a huge story.

Gods banker found hanging
underneath the bridge.

And for the British,
question now

that is to be heard,
m*rder or suicide?

People in Italy
assumed immediately

that he had been m*rder*d
just because of who

he was and the
circumstances of his death.

City Police didn't
really know that he

had many, many enemies,
any one of whom

could have potentially
m*rder*d him

or ordered him to be m*rder*d.

[music playing]

Others who believe that
Calvi was definitely

m*rder*d, his own family.

His son Carlo who had
been living and working

in the United
States, his ambition

was to follow in his
father's footsteps

in banking or financial career.

With him or his mother,
Clara, and his sister,

Anna, who has left
Italy at her father's

desperate urging
only days before.

The family boards
a flight to London.

Five weeks after Calvi's death,
City of London Coroner Dr.

David Paul presides
over the inquest.

The inquest is handled
in extraordinary haste.

It's completed within one
day, not giving people

time to consider
evidence in any detail.

In less than an hour, the
jury comes to a conclusion.

The jury has decided that
the deceased k*lled himself.

Ooh.

I therefore record
that the jury found

that Roberto Calvi,
a male, 62 years,

was certified dead at Waterloo
pier 18th of June, 1982.

Cause of death,
asphyxia due to hanging.

Momentous words--

And that he k*lled himself.

--that will go a long way
to postponing the solution

to the Calvi riddle.

There was outrage but
there was also ridicule.

The idea of rushing
to judgment on this

supports the theory of
official desire for a cover up

to limit the damage from
what the full truth might

have revealed.

The Calvi family were
very upset at the result

of the first inquest.

They were pushing for
a different verdict.

They employed a very
high profile lawyer

to look into the case for them.

And eventually, they got a
second inquest a year later.

Signor Calvi's widow
and son maintained

that he was m*rder*d.

There would never have
been a second inquest

if it hadn't been
for his family.

On the first day
of the new inquest,

the jury of six
men and three women

were brought to
Blackfriars Bridge

where Signor Calvi's
body was found

hanging almost a year ago.

It goes on for 11 days.

The family comes in and
testifies at one point

about his state of mind.

For the Calvi family,
that was a great victory

because it had gone from the
point of being suicide to open

verdict and they took that
finding of open verdict and use

that as the basis then to
try to show it was m*rder.

I believe the K*llers
were sending a message

by k*lling him in public
in the heart of the city.

There was definitely something
theatrical about it all.

And the message was
clearly worth the risk.

The circles that
he moved in invites

that kind of speculation.

I lean toward m*rder.

There were a hell of a lot of
people who wanted him dead.

The intrigue dragged in
so many different types

and levels of people.

It gives conspiracy
theories a bad name.

When he got involved
with these people,

that was the beginning
of his downfall.

To understand how Roberto
Calvi's death came to pass,

we must know his story.

[music playing]

Roberto Calvi came from
a middle class family.

They were not rich.

He knew in school children
of wealthy families

and he had a more of a simple
middle class lifestyle.

So he was envious of
many of his peers.

He was just so socially
awkward and insecure

and just had problems
dealing with people.

Calvi's middle class is
very hard to break out of.

His father's a banker
at a regional bank,

never gets past the
position of manager.

Calvi did probably have
a chip on his shoulder

with his father in terms
of social snobbery.

Calvi was more ambitious and
he attended Bocconi University

in Milan, specializing
in business and economics

but he did not graduate.

If you're a university
graduate in Italy,

you get to call
yourself dottore.

But if you haven't
graduated, you're

ragioniere, which is not an
accountant, but a step below

that.

After serving honorably
in World w*r II,

Calvi meets and falls in
love with the beautiful Clara

Canetti.

He takes a job at his father's
bank for a short time.

There, he realizes his
facility for numbers.

Young Calvi can literally
see power in numbers.

It is a universe of
vast secrets hidden

inside endless combinations.

Everything is math.

Business, capitalism, power.

You need only to
grasp the combinations

and then perhaps
most importantly,

keep them to yourself.

Secrets are power.

He sees this more
clearly than anything.

He finds the elite banks
of Milan intimidating.

Then comes an opening at
the small but respected

Banco Ambrosiano, the
chief Catholic bank

of Milan known as
the Bank of Priests.

Most of the coworkers
really disliked him.

Around the same time, Roberto
Rosone starts working there.

He later becomes a
key figure with Calvi.

Rosone, he found
Calvi infuriating

to speak to because he wouldn't
look you the eye very socially

inept.

Diplomacy is part
of the business

and that didn't come to him.

So naturally, it could
be that it influenced

him to operate in the shadows
and also of his rather

conspiratorial bent of mind.

He had a secretary,
Graziella Corrocher.

With Graziella by
his side, Calvi

begins his rise through the
ranks of Banco Ambrosiano.

They're the number one
Catholic bank in Italy

except, they have one rival.

[music playing]

A bank in the Venice area.

It's not arrival
in terms of size,

but Banca Cattolica has
something Ambrosiano doesn't.

It has a status and at least
status even inside Catholicism.

So it has a snobbery value
that Ambrosiano doesn't have.

That's something that
Calvi always remembers.

He likes where he's
at, at Ambrosiano,

but one day, far on the horizon,
he looks at Banca Cattolica

and thinks, huh, maybe one day I
can do something with that bank

too.

[music playing]

Though Rosone saw in
Calvi, a lust for power.

He said at one point that he has
no mistress other than power.

[music playing]

A year after they
marry, Roberto and Clara

welcomed their
first born, Carlo.

His sister Anna
arrives soon after.

The family was doing well.

They had a vacation
home in the country.

Calvi is having
the kind of success

his father could
only envy as he rides

on the wings of Italy's
economic miracle.

[music playing]

In the 1950s, there's a
beginning of this boom period.

It was a turning point
in Italian history.

Before World w*r II, Italy
was a rural agrarian country.

Italy goes from being a
relatively poor country

into being a quite
prosperous one.

And now, it's an
industrial power.

[music playing]

Factories were grinding out
cars and home appliances.

Hundreds of thousands of
people are going to university.

The economy took off.

Italy has regained its place
in the New World Order.

Lifestyle, culture
changed dramatically.

It was the time of the vespa,
the time of the Cinquecento.

It became a rich country.

It helped propel him
further on his rise.

But for a large institution
like Banco Ambrosiano,

you needed something more
to get to the highest level.

You needed outside support
for political support

or economic support.

Calvi didn't have political
protectors so he felt isolated.

He had to make the contacts
to be able to do business

on a much grander scale.

The real game is going
on behind the scenes.

In the years that
follow, Calvi's ambition

would lead him to some
of Italy's most nefarious

characters.

Calvi's most crucial connections
to the Vatican, the Mafia,

and the secret Masonic lodge
P2, came through one man.

Calvi went over to the
dark side influenced

by Michele Sindona,
the great expert of how

to work your way
around the rules

and maximize your profits.

Sindona was a much more
dangerous and insidious

character than Calvi.

[music playing]

Sindona was a very wealthy
and powerful banker.

He was this charismatic
guy, financial genius,

he was well connected.

[music playing]

Born in 1920, Calvi and
Sindona a month apart,

very different backgrounds.

Sindona was born into
a dirt poor family.

It's the type of
family you never

become a major banker in Milan.

[music playing]

The South is looked down on,
Sicily is looked down on,

and it stigmatizes you.

And put you into a corner.

And in Northern Italy, they
look down on Southern Italians,

they are the richer, better,
more elitist, better educated

part of Italy.

But Sindona clearly
had a view of himself.

Bigger than what it was.

He went to work for the
Sicilian Tax Department.

It taught Sindona what
the official tax law is,

so he would know how
to evade it himself.

He should have been a
lifelong state worker,

but he could think big
enough and dream big enough

to go up North and
think that he was going

to be a kingpin in financing.

[music playing]

He arrived in Milan
having practiced elocution

for nearly a year beforehand
to lose his Sicilian accent.

He was very
different than Calvi.

He was animated, persuasive.

People liked him, he had
a magnetic personality.

Montini is a rising star
in the Italian church.

There was a natural
synergy between people

running businesses and
people running the church.

They had one enemy in mind.

And it was the Soviet Union.

Nations of the West trying
to maintain their freedom

are menaced by
conditions like these.

The threat of wild
turmoil and chaos.

After the Second World w*r,
you have two main power blocs

in Italy, you have the
Catholic Christian Democrats

and you have the Communists.

And communism is the deadly
enemy for the church.

Along with the US
government, they

had one vision in mind,
one focus in mind,

to stop the Communist Party.

Freedom everywhere.

Our freedom is in jeopardy.

So if you had
communists in it, you're

the enemy the United States.

It could be communist ice
cream and they'd be against it.

The problem was, Italy had the
biggest Communist Party West

of the Balkans.

Italy stands at the
crossroads of history.

They were very worried
about the prospect

of communists coming to power.

In the 1948 parliamentary
elections of post-w*r Italy,

the fear was that
they could win.

[music playing]

It is the culmination
of a bitter battle

in which both Western powers and
Russia exerts strong pressure.

The US Department of State
launched an all-out campaign

which included propaganda,
psychological warfare,

and covert operations.

Catholic Church,
the strategy was

if you vote for the communists,
you will go to hell.

The pronouncements of the
Pope draw the battle lines

between the communists
and the church.

A lot of people will
hear that message

and it will influence
the way they vote.

In the Red Scare,
Sindona sees opportunity.

He's called to a
meeting with Montini,

the powerful
Archbishop of Milan.

It is a relationship that
will change Sindona's life.

Montini understands that the
reason that the Communist

Party has been so
successful in Milan

is because it's reaching
the ears of the working

class in the factories and
in the unions of Milan.

[music playing]

This is where Sindona
comes up and becomes

a real friend of Montini.

He represents some of
the unions themselves.

He has people own the mills
as his clients as a lawyer.

[music playing]

He gets Montini inside
those factories.

Montini is able to make
the pitch that he wants to.

[applause]

The Christian Democrats
hold on to power

while this gets Sindona
in the door with Montini.

It is another act that
solidifies their relationship.

He goes to Sindona and
he says, you know what?

We're thinking of building
this retirement home.

We need a couple
of million for it.

Sindona says, let me
see what I can do.

Comes back the next day,
I've got your $2 million,

you don't have to
go anywhere else.

Clearly that would
consolidate a friendship

and create the idea that
Sindona was a man to be trusted.

The source of Sindona's
financing is not known.

Was it the Mafia?

The CIA?

It could have been either
of them or both of them.

[music playing]

The CIA seeks out people
in important positions

that can benefit them.

They see a prominent
banker who's flexible.

Montini has heard
rumors that Sindona

has ties to the Sicilian Mafia.

But are they only rumors?

The Catholic Church
was notorious

for saying that the
mafia didn't exist.

[music playing]

1960, Sindona buys his
first of two Italian banks.

He is living Roberto
Calvi's dream.

[music playing]

And then, a twist of fate
propels Sindona even higher.

Montini selected
Pope as Pope Paul VI.

Which for Sindona, is
like hitting the lottery.

[music playing]

Sindona managed to become
a sort of financial advisor

to the Vatican.

[music playing]

Cardinals in the church, they're
incredibly poorly equipped

in terms of managing
the church's money.

They have to rely on people
outside of the church

to help them do that.

[music playing]

And of course, who is going
to be drawn to helping

you manage this kind of money.

Some pretty shady characters.

And so you've got just
like a recipe for disaster.

Sindona made money from
his Vatican relationship.

Bending the rules is what
the bank is all about.

[music playing]

The Vatican Bank, it was founded
in the middle of World w*r II

so that it could get the Vatican
off of the British and American

watch list and
place the Vatican,

which was a neutral
country, on the blacklist.

So they ended up forming
a bank that operated

inside a sovereign country.

[music playing]

I.O.R. stands for, in
Italian, the Institute

of Religious Works.

It's nicknamed the Vatican Bank.

All its transactions
were off the radar

for British and American
banking officials.

It allowed the Vatican to invest
in German and Italian insurance

companies who were cheating the
life insurance policies of Jews

sent to the death camps and
the bank made outsized profits.

And when the w*r
ended, the Vatican

said oh, we're a neutral.

We didn't invest anything
in the Germans and Italians.

And nobody could tell that
they were lying because it was

hidden inside the Vatican Bank.

So bending the rules is
part of the DNA of the bank.

Sindona would be seen as the
go-to man for Catholic finance.

The man with the Vatican
contacts, the friendships,

and the financial know how.

Calvi sees this and
admires Sindona.

He wants to be Sindona.

[music playing]

By 1965, Calvi has achieved
the role of a manager.

He was now a little bit
ahead of what his father had

achieved in his entire career.

But just then, Italy's high
flying days hit turbulence.

The boom years don't
lead to unending growth.

Young people after 1968,
the student revolts

become increasingly violent.

3,000 left wing university
students battle with police.

A left wing newspaper calls
the Vatican, the biggest tax

evader in post-w*r Italy.

One source claims the Vatican
owes as much as $720 million

in unpaid taxes.

A Communist government
could come to power

and put all those
holdings at risk.

[music playing]

Income Sindona, the financial
magician with the solution.

[music playing]

He says to them,
there's only one way.

You want to avoid, you want
to get out of this debate,

you come into investments
that I will put you in outside

of Italy in many cases.

We hide them under
offshore corporations,

the government can't
have any look at it,

you'll make just as
much money or more.

The Pope likes that idea.

As the world's largest charity,
the Pope's organization

supports 250,000
priests, a million nuns,

5 million employees, 20 million
children in parochial schools,

and 600 million followers.

It is always in need of income.

As a result, they were
ripe for exploitation.

The Holy Father gives
Sindona complete control

over the Vatican's billions.

Sindona becomes the leading
banker of the Roman Curia,

a big day for a kid born
dirt poor in Sicily.

[music playing]

It's hard to overestimate
the importance of the Vatican

Bank being in a
separate jurisdiction

in the middle of Rome.

Because as far as
Sindona is concerned,

it's the equivalent of
operating an offshore bank

in the heart of Rome.

The government can't have
any look at it for Sindona,

that's indispensably helpful.

People from Italy
and other countries

put their money into
the Vatican Bank

so that they could hide it.

Now the Vatican bank
was giving it to Sindona

so he could hide their money.

Calvi would see him as a
model for his own career

that he could gain
valuable tips on how

to be successful in that
world of Catholic finance.

He met Sindona in the late 1960s
at a time when he had almost

reached the top of the bank.

Sindona had the knowledge
about the places

to set up offshore companies.

He knew that the
real way to do what

they call back-to-back
companies, in which you're

reporting results of
different companies

to make them look more inflated,
you're borrowing more money

against them.

It's almost a Ponzi scheme.

He wants to see everything
bagel, which turns out

to be-- all of
the offshore banks

in the Caribbean turns
out to be Panama.

All the European offshore
banks at his height.

Sindona is running
about a billion dollars

through nearly 80 to 85
different banks all outside

of Italy in tax havens
in which you can't

get any information about them.

They established banks in
Peru, Panama, the Bahamas.

Of course, Calvi too has heard
the rumors of Sindona's ties

to Cosa Nostra.

Everyone has.

There were certainly plenty
of stories about Sindona

being part of the Mafia,
having gotten his start there

after the w*r with
Vito Genovese,

having opened up the
produce market for him.

And then he owed them forever.

An ABC stringer said
that in 1957, he'd

been in a summit meeting
of Mafia captains

at the Hotel De
Palmes in Palermo.

These stories were part
of Sindona's legend

when he was alive.

Of course, these
are just stories.

The Mafia is a force to be
reckoned with in Sicily.

The Mafia in Southern
Italy and Sicily

has exercised enormous influence
over the entire society.

If you're a young ambitious
man, then perhaps, you will say,

what do I need to
get on in life?

And he would have
said, well, what I

need is some powerful friends.

People who would give me support
to help me on my way out.

Those people would have
certainly included in Sicily.

People of the Mafia.

Quite simply that.

Sindona was surrounded
by people of Cosa Nostra.

Part of Sindona's business model
was laundering heroin money.

Heroin, it's been
alleged that nearly 2/3

of the heroin consumed
in the United States

has been processed by
Mafia middlemen in Sicily.

These men were smuggling it on
commercial jets to New York.

The recipients
say Italian police

were American relatives
controlling the Mafia's drug

trade in the US.

[music playing]

Money from extortion,
to sex trafficking,

human trafficking, drugs.

That money was dirty,
it was criminal.

For him, it was still the same
right color, it was green,

he took it, and he would wash
it through the system for them.

While Calvi knows that
Sindona is investing money

from the Vatican, he
has no idea how in deep

he actually is with the Mafia.

[music playing]

Or does he?

Together, they both
invested Cosa Nostra's money

into the Sindona's banks,
Calvi's banks, and the Vatican.

Their point of contact
with Cosa Nostra

is Giuseppe "Pippo" Calo
known as cassiere de Cosa

Nostra or the Mafia's cashier.

Five years spent in prison
with two prominent mob bosses

lifts him to the top
levels of the Mafia.

Two years after the second
inquest into Calvi's death,

a breakthrough in the case comes
when Mafia Informant Mutolo

drops an accusation
in his testimony

to the Italian authorities.

Pippo Calo was a link between
Mafia business and white collar

crime.

He is the first person charged
in the m*rder of Roberto Calvi.

But is the tip
they received true?

And if Calo did order the
hit on Calvi, to what end?

And was the Mafia acting alone?

[music playing]

Six years later,
Calvi's wife Clara

is frustrated that the
case still awaits trial.

In Italy, it's this constant
frustration that nobody ever

gets to the bottom of
things, nobody ever

finds out what really
happened, what the true causes.

[music playing]

Clara Calvi is
looking for something

that will stick to move her
husband's death forward and get

it closer to the conclusion
that she believes is m*rder.

To be frank about it,
it would have been done.

The suicide would have
been recorded and gone away

if the family did not hire
an investigative agency

Kroll run by former FBI
agents to investigate.

In 1992, I was approached by
Jeff Katz of Kroll Associates

to see if I could help.

Jeff wanted me to look at
the forensic science aspect.

As I started to get into
it, I thought, my goodness,

what have I bitten off here?

It's a bit more than--

maybe I can chew.

The question of who k*lled
Calvi is who didn't k*ll Calvi.

It's a long list.

Sometimes I've called
it a three-ring circus

but maybe it was a
five-ring circus.

By the end of it, this
man had so many enemies.

[music playing]