The Banco Ambrosiano scandal, Roberto Calvi's much-debated suicide, and charges of mishandling state secrets concerned with the 1980 Bologna bombing made Pazienza a fugitive from Italian law.
[3] Extradition procedures ensued, and a judge ordered him to stand trial in Italy,[4] an appeal process did not change that, and Pazienza was handed over to the Italian government in June 1986.
[11][12] When Pazienza was still a fugitive, he was questioned in the United States by Customs agents regarding financial fraud charges brought in Italy that had grown out of the disappearance of funds, about $3 million, from the Banco Ambrosiano.
Pazienza later claimed that these Customs agents had told him that Stefano Delle Chiaie had been seen in Miami, Florida, with an unidentified Turk,[13] and repeated his position during the time he was on trial on charges stemming from the 1980 Bologna bombing.
[13] A 1985 investigation by The Wall Street Journal suggested that a series of Billygate articles written by Michael Ledeen and published in The New Republic in October 1980 were part of a disinformation campaign intended to influence the outcome of that year's presidential election.