ITALY: Mystery Photo

An eerie clue to Sindona

Was he, or wasn't he? When Michele Sindona, 59, Italy's notorious fallen angel of high finance, was first reported kidnaped from a Manhattan street two months ago, Italians as well as U.S. authorities were skeptical. Most believed that the native Sicilian had arranged his own disappearance. After all, he was about to stand trial in New York City on a 99-count indictment of financial finagling, and was wanted in Milan on charges of bank fraud totaling $225 million.

Now officials in both countries have a persuasive reason to fear that Sindona really was abducted. Their clue: a Polaroid color snapshot of a scraggy Sindona as an apparent captive. It was delivered to the Rome office of Sindona's lawyer, Rodolfo Guzzi, in a plain envelope postmarked Sept. 8, Brooklyn, N.Y. It shows Sindona, gaunt and pale, hair unwashed and jowls unshaved, seated on a plain wooden chair. A cardboard sign covering his chest carries an ominous message crudely printed by his purported kidnapers: IL GIUSTO PROCESSO LO FAREMO NOI (The fair trial will be conducted by us).

Enclosed with the photo was a scathing, ten-point "interrogation" about his alleged wheeling and dealing, apparently handwritten by Sindona under duress. The questions demand detailed information from Guzzi about illegal deals that Sindona reportedly conducted through his banks on behalf of some of Italy's leading politicians and businessmen, and the Vatican to boot. Guzzi is instructed in the note to be ready—if he is telephoned by one of the captors—to reply to all of the questions within ten minutes.

The picture evokes painful memories of the comparable photo of Aldo Moro before he was murdered by his Red Brigades abductors last year. More than that, if the allegations were even partly true, they would set off a Vesuvius of scandal. The group claiming to hold Sindona, the Proletarian Committee of Subversion for Better Justice, is unknown to Italian police, and some authorities still believe Sindona may be only pretending. Lawyer Guzzi theorizes that the kidnapers may be on a fishing expedition, seeking incriminating evidence that could be used for extortion. Says he: "I don't believe for one moment that they are terrorists in the political sense. I think they are criminal blackmailers."