Francesco Pazienza

Who is Francesco Pazienza?

Francesco Pazienza is an Italian businessman, and former officer of the Italian military intelligence agency, SISMI. As of April 2007, he has been paroled to the community of Lerici, after serving many years in prison, including a 1993 conviction due to his role in the Banco Ambrosiano scandal, and a 1982 conviction for mishandling state secrets.

Pazienza holds a degree in medicine from the University of Rome. He worked as a business consultant in France during the 1970s. In 1979 he was hired into SISMI, and became an assistant to SISMI director, General Giuseppe Santovito. Pazienza left the intelligence agency in wake of the Propaganda Due scandal that rocked the Italian political scene in 1981. The Banco Ambrosiano scandal, Roberto Calvi's "suicide," and charges of mishandling state secrets concerned with the 1980 Bologna bombing, made Pazienza a fugitive from Italian law.

Eventually, Pazienza ended up in the United States. A first extradition request from Italy was handed to the U.S. government in 1984, but Pazienza was not yet arrested. His arrest come only on March 4, 1985. Extradition procedures ensued, and a judge order him to stand trial in Italy, an appeal process did not change that, and Pazienza was handed over to the Italian government in June 1986.