[2] Gelli also volunteered for the Blackshirts expeditionary forces sent by Mussolini in support of Francisco Franco's rebellion in the Spanish Civil War.

[5][6] After a sales job with the Italian mattress factory Permaflex, Gelli founded his own textile and importing company.

[7] As Master of the Propaganda Due (P2) lodge, Gelli had ties with very high level personalities in Italy and abroad, in particular in Argentina, where he was a fugitive for many years.

[8] The Argentine Chancellor Alberto Vignes drafted with Juan Perón, who had returned from exile in 1973, a decree granting Gelli the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Libertador in August 1974, as well as the honorary office of economic counselor in the embassy of Argentina in Italy.

[9] Gelli was also named minister plenipotentiary for cultural affairs in the Argentine embassy in Italy, thus providing him with diplomatic immunity.

[9] During the 1970s, Gelli brokered three-way oil and arms deals between Libya, Italy and Argentina through the Agency for Economic Development, which he and Umberto Ortolani owned.

[13] Several members of the Argentine military junta have been found to be P2 members, such as Raúl Alberto Lastiri, Argentina's interim president from 13 July 1973 until 12 October 1973, Emilio Massera, part of Jorge Videla's military junta from 1976 to 1978, and José López Rega, the infamous founder of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ("Triple A").

[19] Gelli's downfall started with the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, which led to a 1981 police raid on his villa and the discovery of the P2 covert lodge.

On 17 March 1981 a police raid on his villa in Arezzo led to the discovery of a list of 962 persons composed of Italian military officers and civil servants, including the heads of the three Italian secret services, involved in Propaganda Due (also known as "P2"), a clandestine lodge expelled from the Grande Oriente d'Italia Masonic organization.

[24] A Parliamentary Commission, directed by Tina Anselmi (of the Christian Democratic party), found no evidence of crimes, but in 1981 the Italian parliament passed a law banning secret associations in Italy.

Gelli was expelled from GOI freemasonry on 31 October 1981, and the P2 scandal provoked the fall of Arnaldo Forlani's cabinet in June 1981 [25] The P2 lodge had some form of power in Italy, given the public prominence of its members, and many observers still consider it to be extremely strong.

Several famous people in Italy today (starting with the top TV anchor-man Maurizio Costanzo) were affiliated with P2.

[29] On the run, Gelli escaped to Switzerland where he was arrested on 13 September 1982 while trying to withdraw tens of millions of dollars in Geneva.

[32] Finally, in 1987, Gelli secretly came back to Switzerland in the car of his lawyer Marc Bonnant[33] and surrendered in Geneva to investigative judge Jean-Pierre Trembley.

[38] Gelli had already been sentenced in absentia to 14 months in jail by a court in San Remo for illegally exporting money from Italy.

The Vatican bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione, main share-holder of the Banco Ambrosiano, consequently had a "black hole" of $250 million.

In his statement before the court Gelli blamed people connected with Calvi's work in financing the Polish Solidarity movement, allegedly on behalf of the Vatican.

[52] Gelli has been implicated in Aldo Moro's murder, since the Italian chief of intelligence, accused of negligence, was a piduista (P2 member).

[54][55] In 2003 Gelli told La Repubblica that it seemed that the P2 "democratic rebirth plan" was being implemented by Silvio Berlusconi:Every morning I speak to my conscience and the dialogue calms me down.

[63][64] However, the so-called "500 directory" remained secret (426 files addressed by Gelli to businessmen, politicians, companies, banks, clergymen, etc.).