René Brülhart (born 1972) is a Swiss lawyer from Fribourg,[1] who served as the President of the Board of Directors of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) of Vatican City.
From 2004 to 2012 he headed Liechtenstein's financial intelligence unit which was elected by the Plenary to act as Vice-Chair of the Egmont group from 2010 to 2012.
[5] One major scandal involved using Peter's Pence, which serves as the Pope's charity fund,[6] to buy luxury property in London as far back as 2012, when Brülhart first became a member of the AIF.
[6][5] In 2017, it was also acknowledged that the Vatican Secretariat of State, which serves as the Vatican's central administration bureaucracy,[5] kept Swiss bank accounts, with the departments Prefect Pietro Parolin acknowledging that these accounts were used to hide charity money which was used to purchase the London property.
[6] On 27 November 2019 Carmelo Barbagallo, who previously served as head of the Bank of Italy's Supervision Office,[7] was appointed by Pope Francis to succeed Brülhart.