On 22 March 1986, disgraced banker Michele Sindona died in hospital after being poisoned with cyanide. Just four days earlier, he received a life sentence for ordering the murder of a lawyer investigating his financial empire.
Sindona died in the Lombardy town of Voghera after drinking coffee laced with poison while held in a maximum-security prison. Although his lawyer claimed he had been murdered, investigators concluded the circumstances pointed to suicide.
Banker with political and criminal links
Sindona built a vast banking empire spanning Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. His influence extended into political and financial circles, including ties with former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti and reported connections with former US president Richard Nixon.
He also maintained relationships with controversial financier Roberto Calvi and US archbishop Paul Marcinkus, then head of the Vatican Bank. Investigators later uncovered links between Sindona and organised crime, including the New York Gambino family led by Carlo Gambino, with money laundering tied to heroin trafficking helping fund his expansion.
Collapse of a financial empire
Sindona’s business network began to unravel in 1974 following the collapse of Franklin National Bank on Long Island, at the time the 20th largest bank in the United States. The failure triggered losses estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars and brought down much of his financial empire.
He was later sentenced in the United States to 25 years in prison for fraud linked to the collapse. Italian authorities simultaneously investigated his activities, appointing lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli as liquidator to examine his businesses.
Murder of investigating lawyer
Ambrosoli rejected bribes and pressure to approve documents that would have shielded Sindona from prosecution and required a state bailout. On 12 July 1979, Ambrosoli was shot dead outside his Milan home.
Investigators concluded the killing had been ordered by Sindona and carried out by a hired assassin. The banker was eventually extradited to Italy, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for arranging the murder.
In the days before his death, Sindona repeatedly expressed fears he would be poisoned. On the morning he collapsed, prison guards reported he took his coffee into the bathroom before emerging gasping for breath. He died shortly afterwards, with cyanide poisoning confirmed as the cause.
