just finished studying for the bookstudy this week. there's a section about the Italian Banco Ambrosiano ... essentially a bank in Italy owned by the Vatican Bank (which manages the Vatican's money), and it LOST $1.3 billion (it was making loans to dummy corporations, mostly). Just lost. It was apparently quite a scandal (back in 1982) and makes for some interesting googling.

i was only 2 at the time so I kind of missed out on this one ..