is it just me or are they dropping like flies lately?
perhaps something big is in the offing. -vmann
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1190540.ece
Opus Dei financier is found dismembered under bridge
By John Phillips in Rome
Published: 22 July 2006
The badly beaten and mutilated corpse of Gianmario
Roveraro, one of Italy's reputedly most pious
financiers, was discovered "cut to pieces" under a
motorway overpass near Parma yesterday, some two weeks
after he was kidnapped while returning home from a
meeting of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus
Dei.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of the
kidnapping and macabre murder of Mr Roveraro, a banker
who had been questioned by investigators in connection
with the spectacular €14bn (£9.5bn) collapse of the
Parmalat food empire in 2003.
He was a founder of Akros Finanziaria, a financial
services group, and had helped Parmalat list its stock
on the market a decade ago.
The killing recalled the murder of Roberto Calvi, the
Italian financier known as "God's Banker" for his
links to the Vatican, who was found hanged
from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982.
Police suspect Mr Roveraro's kidnapping and murder was
related to a business dispute over a €500,000
property deal.
The purportedly devout Mr Roveraro vanished on 5 July
on his way from attending an evening meeting of the
local Milan branch of Opus Dei, of which he, along
with many other top-level Italian financiers, was a
member.
Despite involvement of some its members in a series of
financial scandals, Opus Dei enjoyed favour under the
late Pope John Paul II, who elevated it to the
privileged status of a "personal prelature" within the
Church and controversially gave its Spanish founder,
Josemaria Escriva, a "fast track" beatification and
then canonisation as a saint.
The three arrested men were identified as Emilio
Toscani, 43, from Collechio, a storekeeper; Marco
Baldi, 50, a native of Bologna; and Mr Botteri, 43, a
financial consultant from Parma.
Mr Botteri was quoted as saying he couldn't recall any
more about the murder. Police suspect Mr Roveraro may
have been killed several days ago.
Mr Toscani led police to the financier's body, cut up
into several parts and decomposing in the summer heat,
yesterday morning, police sources said.
Since 5 July, Mr Roveraro made several telephone calls
within 48 hours, to his wife Silvana and to his
business assistants who he asked to sell €1m of
shares in a family company. Carabinieri paramilitary
police traced the alleged gang by following the
signature of public telephone cards used to make calls
during ransom negotiations, the sources said. Mr
Roveraro was one of 64 people under investigation in
the Parmalat affair and prosecutors had asked for him
to be indicted on charges of belonging to a criminal
organisation conspiring in fraudulent bankruptcy.
He had been on the board of Parmalat's finance
subsidiary from 1990 to 1998.
A spokesman for Opus Dei said: "We want to express our
closeness to the upset family. This death has hit Opus
Dei very hard.
"Gianmario is not suffering any more now and is
receiving the reward for what he was - an intelligent,
gentle, noble and generous person."
============
"Roveraro had been questioned over a huge corporate
scandal involving Parmalat SpA ..."
---
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/article_1183229.php/3_held_in_Italian_banker%60s_kidnap-murder
MILAN, Italy (UPI) -- Three men have been charged in
the murder of a banker after he left a meeting of the
conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, Italian media
reported Saturday.
The men -- financial consultant Filippo Botteri,
computer expert Emilio Toscani and workman Marco Baldi
-- were charged with kidnapping banker Gianmario
Roveraro, 70, as he was going home from an Opus Dei
meeting July 5, and later killing and dismembering
him.
Roveraro`s body was found Friday, chopped into pieces
and hidden in a hut beneath a highway overpass about
18 miles from Parma, Italy, news agencies RadioCor and
ANSA reported Saturday.
The kidnapping and murder are alleged to have stemmed
from a failed property transaction in which the
Botteri lost a substantial amount of money, the news
agencies said.
Roveraro had been questioned over a huge corporate
scandal involving Parmalat SpA, the now-bankrupt
Italian dairy and food corporation, which in 2003
reported a nearly $18 billion hole in its accounting
records in one of the biggest corporate scandals in
history.
Roveraro had close ties with Opus Dei, ANSA said, but
police have made no link between his disappearance and
the secretive organization.
Following the discovery of Roveraro`s dismembered
body, a spokesman for Opus Dei said: 'We want to
express our closeness to the upset family. This death
has hit Opus Dei very hard.'
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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