Licio Gelli (; 21 April 1919 – 15 December 2015) was an Italian Freemason, businessman, and terrorist. A fascist volunteer in his youth, he is chiefly known for his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal and in the Bologna massacre. He was revealed in 1981 as being the Venerable Master of the clandestine Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2). This would lead to him getting arrested in Switzerland in 1982. He managed to escape from prison the next year, but eventually agreed to surrender back into the custody of Swiss authorities for a short period of time in 1987. From 1996 until his death in 2015, Gelli remained mostly under house arrest at his home in Arezzo.
Early life
Gelli was born in Pistoia in Tuscany. During the 1930s, Gelli, then a seventeen-year-old student at a liceo classico in Pistoia, was expelled from all schools in Italy after slapping a teacher. He subsequently left as a volunteer to fight in Spain with the Fascist brigades supporting Generalissimo Francisco Franco. It was in the battle of Malaga that his brother Raffaello died. The youngest recruit in his contingent, he was decorated by Franco himself.
Gelli also volunteered for the Blackshirts expeditionary forces sent by Mussolini in support of Francisco Franco's rebellion in the Spanish Civil War. He served as liaison officer between the Italian government and Nazi Germany, and participated in the Italian Social Republic with Giorgio Almirante, founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).
After a sales job with the Italian mattress factory Permaflex, Gelli founded his own textile and importing company.
Involvement in failed coup and fugitive years in Argentina In 1970, in the plans of the failed Golpe Borghese, Gelli was tasked with arresting the Italian President, Giuseppe Saragat.Costanzo Costantini, Sangue sulla dolce vita, Gremese Editore, 2006 p.126. 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. The regular Masonic lodge was enjoyed by Guillermo Suárez Mason and José López Rega, two key-exponents of the Argentine military junta.
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.Susana Viau and Eduardo Tagliaferro, "Carlos Bartffeld, Mason y Amigo de Massera, Fue Embajador en Yugoslavia Cuando Se Vendieron Armas a Croacia - En el mismo barco", Pagina 12, 14 December 1998 Gelli publicly declared on repeated occasions that he was a close friend of Perón, although no confirmation ever came from South America. Gelli affirmed that he introduced Peron to Masonry and that this friendship was of real importance for Italy. He stated: "Peron was a Mason, I initiated him in Madrid in Puerta de Hierro, in June 1973.", Perfíl, August 31, 2008 Gelli become the main economic and financial consultant of Isabel Perón and of José López Rega.
According to a letter sent by Gelli to César de la Vega, a P2 member and Argentine ambassador to the UNESCO, Gelli commissioned P2 member Federico Carlos Barttfeld to be transferred from the consulate of Hamburg to the Argentine embassy in Rome. Gelli was also named minister plenipotentiary for cultural affairs in the Argentine embassy in Italy, thus providing him with diplomatic immunity. He had four diplomatic passports issued by Argentina, and has been charged in Argentina with falsification of official documents. 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.Hot Money and the Politics of Debt By R. T. Naylor
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"). The lodge P2, also known as the Propaganda Due, was also linked to the robbery of Juan Perón's severed hands.Nabot, Damian, and Cox, David. Second Death: Licio Gelli, The P2 Masonic Lodge and The Plot to Destroy Juan Peron. Amazon, 2014.
Alleged involvement in CIA activities in Italy In 1981, Gelli was one of the very few Italians to be invited to President Reagan's inauguration. (at minute 0:28)
In 1990, a report on RAI Television alleged that the CIA had paid Gelli to instigate terrorist activities in Italy."CIA backed Italy terrorism during '70s, report claims," Daily Breeze, 23 July 1990 Following this report, which also claimed that the CIA had been involved in the assassination of the Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme, then President Francesco Cossiga requested the opening of investigations while the CIA itself officially denied these allegations."CIA Denies Report", The Washington Post, July 24, 1990 Critics have claimed the RAI report to be a fraud because of the inclusion of testimony from Richard Brenneke, who claimed to be a former CIA agent and made several declarations concerning the October surprise conspiracy. Brenneke's background was also investigated by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, which dismissed Brenneke's claims of CIA employment. In June 2020, the Swedish police closed their investigation into Olof Palme's assassination, assigning blame to Stig Engström, a Swedish graphic designer and centre-right municipal activist who was not affiliated with the CIA.
1981 raid and the P2 list
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.Boston Globe, June 14, 1981Ginsborg, Italy and Its Discontent, pp. 144-48 Future Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was on the list, although he had not yet entered politics. He was then known as the founder and owner of "Canale 5" TV channel, and was listed as a member of P2.
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 "Leader of Italian Scandal Arrested Trying to Get Cash in Swiss Bank," The Miami Herald, September 15, 1982
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. Among these Michele Sindona, a banker with clear connections to the Mafia, has been clearly associated with P2. In 1972, Sindona purchased a controlling interest in Long Island's Franklin National Bank. Two years later, the bank collapsed. Convicted in 1980 in the US, "mysterious Michele" was extradited to Italy. Two years later, he was poisoned in his cell while serving a life sentence. The P2 membership list was authenticated, with a few exceptions, by a 1984 parliamentary report."Italian Panel Reports on Secret Lodge," The Boston Globe, July 4, 1984
Imprisonment in Switzerland, escape, and return to Switzerland
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. Detained in the modern Champ-Dollon Prison near Geneva, he managed to escape on August 10, 1983 and then fled to South America for four years. In 1984 Jorge Vargas, the secretary general of the Unión Nacionalista de Chile (UNACH, Nationalist Union of Chile, a short-lived National Socialist party Franz Pfeiifer R., Memorias de treinta años II. (written by a former MNRS member) ) and a former member of the Movimiento Revolucionario Nacional Sindicalista (National-Syndicalist Revolutionary Movement ), declared to La Tercera de la Hora that Gelli was then in Pinochet's Chile."Gelli en Chile, dice diario", El Nuevo Herald (Miami), July 30, 1984
Finally, in 1987, Gelli secretly came back to Switzerland in the car of his lawyer Marc Bonnant and surrendered in Geneva to investigative judge Jean-Pierre Trembley."Ex-head of Secret Masonic Lodge, Licio Gelli, Surrenders to Judge", The Seattle Times, 21 September 1987 He was wanted in connection with the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano"Italian Bank Scam Fugitive Surrenders in Switzerland", Philadelphia Daily News, September 21, 1987 and on charges of subversive association in connection with the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing, which killed 85 people."Gelli, Fugitive Italian Financier, Gives Himself Up in Switzerland," The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 22, 1987 He was sentenced to two months in prison in Switzerland,"Swiss Court Jails Italian Financier", The Washington Post, December 23, 1987 while an Italian court in Florence sentenced him on 15 December 1987, in absentia, to eight years in prison on charges of financing right-wing terrorist activity in Tuscany in the 1970s."Terrorism Conviction," Newsday (Melville, NY), December 16, 1987 Gelli had already been sentenced in absentia to 14 months in jail by a court in San Remo for illegally exporting money from Italy.
Extradition to Italy, trials and house arrest Switzerland eventually agreed to extradite him to Italy, but only on financial charges stemming from the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. Gelli's extradition in February 1988 required a high-level security apparatus, including 100 sharpshooters, decoy cars, a train, road blocks and two armored cars to transfer him to Italy."Conspiracy suspect extradited Gelli shipped to Italy amid tight security," The Orange County Register, February 18, 1988 In July 1988 he was absolved of charges of subversive association by a Bologna court but was presented with a five-year prison term for slander, having side-tracked the investigation into the 1980 bombing of the Bologna train station. Stipulations connected to his extradition, however, prevented him from serving time. Two years later, an appeal court threw out Gelli's slander conviction. A retrial was ordered in October 1993.
In 1992 Gelli was sentenced to 18 years and six months of prison after being found guilty of fraud concerning the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 (a "black hole" of $1.4 billion was found). The Vatican bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione, main share-holder of the Banco Ambrosiano, consequently had a "black hole" of $250 million. This sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal to 12 years. The year 1992 also saw the beginning of the trial of 16 members of the P2 Masonic Lodge, which included charges of conspiracy against the state, espionage, and the revelation of state secrets. In April 1994 Gelli received a 17-year sentence for divulging state secrets and slandering the investigation, while the court threw out the charge that P2 members conspired against the state; Gelli's sentence was reduced, and he was placed under house arrest two years later.