A lawsuit, Alperin v. Vatican Bank, filed in November 1999 by Serb, Jewish, and Ukrainian Holocaust survivors against the Vatican Bank seeking return of Nazi loot from wartime Yugoslavia has run into an apparent wall of silence. Tom Easton and Jonathan Levy, who represent the 28 plaintiffs suing the Vatican Bank have asked a Federal Magistrate in San Francisco to order the Vatican Bank to divulge information about itself including its ownership.
Easton and Levy have stated that a veil of secrecy surrounds the operation of the Vatican Bank also known as the Institute for Religious Works. The plaintiffs’ attorneys say that literature suggests the reigning Pope in his personal capacity owns the Vatican Bank. According to Jonathan Levy, the question of ownership of the Vatican Bank is the threshold issue in the case, "There may be certain defenses available to the bank if it is owned by the Vatican City state but if it is owned by an individual or individuals the situation is completely different."
The Vatican Bank however has refused to provide information about its ownership claiming in legal papers filed yesterday in San Francisco that plaintiffs’ request is burdensome, premature, and in the public domain. The plaintiffs’ attorneys and expert witnesses however claim information about the Vatican Bank’s ownership is a closely guarded secret. "If the information is out there, and so easily accessible, why don’t they just produce it?" counters Easton and Levy, "We’ve researched this issue for over year and have yet to find a definitive answer. We would like to know just who we are dealing with here."
The concentration camp survivors bringing the lawsuit, some of whom are in their eighties, hope the answers to the Vatican Bank’s ownership are forthcoming soon so the lawsuit may proceed.