Giorgio Ambrosoli (; 17 October 1933 – 11 July 1979) was an Italian lawyer who was gunned down while investigating the malpractice of banker Michele Sindona.
Liquidating Sindona's financial empire Appointed by the court as liquidator of the Banca Privata Italiana, one of the Italian banks controlled by Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, which was forced into liquidation, he found evidence of criminal manipulations.Messina and Arico v. United States of America , United States Court of Appeals, February 7, 1984 He provided the US Justice Department with evidence to convict Sindona for his role in the collapse of the Franklin National Bank."Justifiable Homicide", by Luigi DiFonzo, New York, April 11, 1983.
According to Ambrosoli, Sindona paid a US$5.6 million commission to "an American bishop and a Milanese banker". Official Italian sources confirmed that it concerned Paul Marcinkus, of the Vatican Bank, and Roberto Calvi, president of Banco Ambrosiano."Scandal at the Pope's Bank", Time, July 26, 1982.
Death On 11 July 1979, only hours after talking to US authorities, Ambrosoli was shot dead by three Mafia hitmen commissioned by Michele Sindona.
Sindona feared that Ambrosoli would expose his manipulations in the Banca Privata Italiana case. Shortly before he was killed, the American Mafia hitman William Arico, a convicted bank robber, invoked the name of Giulio Andreotti – the influential Christian Democrat politician close to Sindona – in a threatening phone call taped by Ambrosoli.Stille, Excellent Cadavers, pp. 39-42 Arico fell to his death while trying to escape from a federal prison in New York in 1984.God's Banker' Guilty in Milan Murder", Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1986. Andreotti later replied in an interview that Ambrosoli "was a person who, in Romanesque words, was looking for it".
In 1986 Sindona was sentenced to life imprisonment for having ordered the murder. Giorgio Bocca, Giorgio Ambrosoli, l'uomo che sfidò Sindona e la mafia, La Repubblica, August 26, 2005
Mafia involvement in murder According to the mafioso turned government witness (pentito) Francesco Marino Mannoia, Sindona laundered the proceeds of heroin trafficking for the Bontade-Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino network. The mafiosi were determined to get their money back and would have played an important role in Sindona's attempt to save his banks. Anche Antonino Giuffré nell'inchiesta Calvi, La Repubblica, October 13, 2002
Ambrosoli was killed shortly after he had a talk with Palermo Police chief Boris Giuliano, who discovered cheques and other documents which indicated that Sindona had been recycling the proceeds from heroin sales by the Mafia through the Vatican Bank to his Amincor Bank in Switzerland. Ten days after the killing of Ambrosoli, Giuliano was shot and killed by the Mafia on 21 July 1979.Sterling, Octopus, p. 194
Ambrosoli was posthumously awarded with a medal for civic heroism.
Legacy In 1995, a film about Ambrosoli was made, entitled A Middle-Class Hero and directed by Michele Placido.Un Eroe Borghese (1995), Online Video Guide URL visited October 23, 2010
In February 2026, Ambrosoli was the subject of a play by Leonardo Torrini, Fino a Ritornare Sulle Labbra: La storia di Giorgio Ambrosoli ("Until it Returns to the Lips: The Story of Giorgio Ambrosoli"), performed at Teatro Puccini in Florence. from Teatro Puccini.it
References
Sources Stajano, Corrado (1995). Un eroe borghese. Il caso dell'avvocato Ambrosoli assassinato dalla mafia politica, Turin: Einaudi, . Sterling, Claire (1990). Octopus. How the long reach of the Sicilian Mafia controls the global narcotics trade, New York: Simon & Schuster, Stille, Alexander (1995). Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage Lucarelli, Carlo (2002). Misteri d'Italia. I casi di Blu notte. Turin: Einaudi, .