Facts and Conspiracies: The Limits of a Financial Scandal

The organization of systems of dubious financial operations is often distinct from the images presented in the scandals that expose them. Forms of financial crime are commonly confused with systems of grey (or “above the law”) financing construed by a privileged few. Moreover, scandals tend to target a small set of actors perceived as key players who centralize or coordinate relationships between legitimate and criminal milieus. The emphasis is placed on all-encompassing conspiracies while the transactions in question would constitute smaller independent schemes attached primarily by the small world of elite associations. This case study of the scandals linked to Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi based on a variety of content and network analyses illustrates such discrepancies in the representation of financial crime.