The Banco-Ambrosiano Case - An Investigation Into the Underestimation of the Relations Between Organized and Economic Crime

Moving from the Ambrosiano case, the paper aims to analyse the links existing between organized crime and economic crime, showing the patterns of relations and highlighting the weaknesses and strengths of both forms of crime as they interact with each other. The paper also underlines the peculiarity of such relations in the Italian criminal situation, which is characterised by deep, strong and long-standing connections between organized crime and economic crime. This relation, which has been ignored or at least underestimated for years, has recently started to be partially uncovered and recognised in the investigations concerning the collapse of the Ambrosiano and the death of its president, Roberto Calvi. Further proof has also been provided in other cases, such as the inquiries of the Parliamentary Committee on the Masonic Lodge P2 and the investigations carried out by Sicilian judges on some Mafia families, thanks to the information provided by witnesses belonging to Cosa Nostra