Roberto Calvi (April 13, 1920 - June 17, 1982) was an Italian banker known to the press as "God's Banker", because of his close association with the Vatican.

He fled Italy after one of the country's largest private banks, Banco Ambrosiano, went bankrupt under his chairmanship with debts (according to various sources) of between 700 million and 1.5 billion dollars. Much of the money had been siphoned off via the Vatican Bank, the Istituto per le Opere Religiose (Institute of Religious Works) or IOR.

His body was found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London (allegedly a masonically significant location) in June 1982. Coincidentally, Calvi was in fact an adherent of Licio Gelli's secret masonic lodge, P2. The British police treated Calvi's death as suicide, despite evidence to the contrary. An enquiry (following Calvi's exhumation) in 1992 concluded that he had been murdered. In September of 2003, City of London Police reopened their investigation as a murder inquiry.

In 1997, Rome prosecutors implicated a member of the Sicilian Mafia, Pippo Calò , in Calvi's murder, along with Flavio Carboni , a businessman with activities in many fields. Two other men, Ernesto Diotallevi (supposedly, leader of the "Banda della Magliana ", the most dangerous Roman Mafia-like association) and Mafia banker Francesco Di Carlo , are also alleged to be involved in the killing.

On April 18, 2005, City of London police charged four people with Calvi's murder. These were Flavio Carboni, his ex-girlfriend Manuela Kleinzig and Pippo Calo and Ernesto Diotallevi

External Links

• BBC News report of murder charges