February 23, 2006

For Immediate Release:

Jonathan Levy and Tom Easton Attorneys

resistk@yahoo.com

202-318-2406

http://www.vaticanbankclaims.com

Current Update

Vatican Bank Lawsuit Progressing

San Francisco: Attorneys for plaintiffs in Alperin v. Vatican Bank a lawsuit seeking recovery of assets looted from Yugoslavia during the Second World War and converted post war by the Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order reports progress on several fronts:

The trial court has approved a Fourth Amended Lawsuit that substantially enhances the existing claims and adds the Serbian Republic of Krajina in Exile as a Plaintiff. Additional facts about how the Ustasha Treasury came to the Vatican Bank, Vatican dealings in gold bullion and the involvement of the Franciscan Order in Rome and Chicago have been added.

The deposition of the only known witness to the Vatican and Franciscan money laundering, former Army Counterintelligence Special Agent William Gowen is set to continue in Dallas on March 9, 2006. Gowen’s eyewitness testimony has revealed so far that Vatican official Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic admitted to Gowen that he received up to ten truckloads of loot in 1946 at the Franciscan controlled Croatian Confraternity of San Girolamo. Gowen also testified that the leader of the treasure convoy, Ustasha Colonel Ivan Babic, boasted to Gowen of using British uniforms and trucks to move the gold from Northern Italy to Rome. As for the Ustasha Treasury’s ultimate destination, Gowen concurred that it could have gone nowhere but the Vatican bank.

Gowen’s testimony is likely to remain unchallenged by any living witness given the recent death of former longtime Vatican Bank President, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who likely knew of the Ustasha transaction but never spoke of it.

Further the United States Supreme Court has denied a Vatican Bank and Franciscan Appeal to halt the lawsuit. The US State Department has also denied previous requests by the Vatican Secretariat to dismiss the lawsuit.

For more information contact:

Jonathan Levy, Esq.

resistk@yahoo.com

202-318-2406