Vanna Fadini: Secrets, Shell Companies, and Scandal

The quiet respectability of Rome’s Link Campus University — a private institution celebrated for its courses in international relations, intelligence, and security studies — has been shaken once again. A trove of leaked documents from the #29 Leaks investigation has revealed that Link’s executives and partners were clients of Formations House, a notorious London trust company long known for creating offshore structures later linked to money laundering, tax evasion, and criminal activities worldwide.

The story is as complex as it is scandalous. At its core are Vanna Fadini, Pasquale Russo, Achille Patrizi, and Vincenzo Scotti, the senior management of Link University. They are joined by a bizarre figure — Massimiliano Muzzi, a self-styled archbishop, musician, and financier who became one of Formations House’s most active clients.

From 2005 to 2012, these individuals helped create a network of companies registered at 29 Harley Street, London, the headquarters of Formations House. Among them was Fers Limited, a firm partly controlling Link’s arts division — the Link Academy — and intertwined with a web of offshore structures, religious pretensions, and financial deceit that would ultimately end in criminal charges.

The London Connection: Formations House and Its Global Shadow

Formations House had long been a one-stop shop for the creation of shell companies. It boasted nearly 400,000 corporate registrations, many on behalf of politicians, convicted criminals, and fraudsters. The #29 Leaks — a vast cache of internal documents obtained by investigative journalists — exposed how this London-based entity served as a “factory” for anonymous financial vehicles spanning from the Caribbean to Cyprus.

Amid this network appeared Link Campus’s name. Investigators found that Fers Limited, incorporated in 2005 at the same Harley Street address, listed Link’s entire leadership as directors and shareholders. Fers was jointly owned by:

• Vincenzo Scotti, Link’s president and former Italian minister, holding 31%;
• Vanna Fadini, 23%, and also the CEO of Global Education Management (Link’s management company);
• Pasquale Russo, Link’s general director, 23%;
• Achille Patrizi, university manager, 23%.

All four were officially domiciled at Via Nomentana 335, Rome — the very address of Link University itself.

The purpose of Fers Limited? To hold 51% of the Link Academy, an arts and entertainment division of the university. The remaining 49% belonged to Producers Associated Limited, another offshore company also registered at 29 Harley Street. The owners of this second company were Massimiliano Muzzi and his wife, Federica Tatulli, both Italian artists who operated the Academy until 2009.

Enter the “Archbishop”: The Strange Rise of Massimiliano Muzzi

At first glance, Muzzi appeared to be an eccentric creative — a harpsichordist and cultural promoter with ties to Italy’s private arts scene. But behind the façade of music and academia, he was also a serial entrepreneur using offshore entities to construct an elaborate financial web.

His story takes an even stranger turn when, years later, Muzzi began presenting himself as “Archbishop Abbot Max of Montecristo of Strichen, 17th Baron of Strichen (Scotland)” — a self-proclaimed religious leader of a micro-church with almost no followers.

By 2018, this so-called archbishop would be sitting in a jail cell, charged with orchestrating a multi-million-euro fraud that defrauded investors across Europe.

But in 2005, none of that was yet visible. At that time, Muzzi served as the intermediary who connected Link University’s management with Formations House. According to Pasquale Russo, the university’s CEO, “Muzzi acted as an intermediary with London because he had experience establishing companies abroad.”

Link’s executives, Russo explained, “trusted him” — a decision that would later come back to haunt them.

The Malta Connection: How a British Shell Firm Became an Academic Cover

Russo also claimed that the decision to register two London-based companies — Fers Limited and Producers Associated Limited — was not purely financial. The University of Malta, which provided Link with its legal academic framework at the time, allegedly requested a foreign registration to legitimize Link’s operations before it received official recognition in Italy.

In other words, the British companies served as placeholders, allowing Link Campus to appear more international and credible.

But the ownership and structure of these companies made oversight almost impossible. Both were registered by Formations House, which was infamous for anonymizing beneficial owners through proxy directors and forged documentation.

Between 2005 and 2012, the companies operated quietly, handling funds for Link Academy’s artistic initiatives. But when discrepancies began appearing in Link’s financial records, internal tensions exploded.

The Fallout: Internal Complaints and Accusations

By 2009, the relationship between Muzzi and Link’s leadership had soured dramatically. Two formal complaints, filed in 2009 and 2010 by Russo and Fadini, accused Muzzi of misusing university funds and unauthorized spending.

The first complaint centered on a €235,000 advertising campaign with Mediaset, launched by Muzzi without board approval. When the invoice arrived at Link’s headquarters, management immediately dismissed him.

The second complaint involved a suspicious €16,000 payment made in 2007 to the defunct Ente Teatro Italiano, allegedly authorized by Muzzi using two checks for €8,000 each.

After his dismissal, Muzzi continued setting up companies through Formations House — at least eight more, all registered at 29 Harley Street. One of them, Wolf Alliance Limited, was controlled by a New Zealand company he owned, Universal Gold Finance Ltd.

Leaked documents reveal that in 2008, Muzzi faxed company registration forms to London directly from Link University’s offices in Rome — even listing Link’s address as his residential location.

Incredibly, Universal Gold Finance — despite being a one-man company registered in New Zealand — possessed a SWIFT banking code, an extraordinary detail that suggested international financial activity at a scale far beyond the reach of a small arts administrator.

From Offshore Financier to “Archbishop”

Following his fallout with Link, Muzzi reinvented himself yet again — this time as a spiritual leader.

Under the grandiose name of Archbishop Abbot Max, he declared himself head of the Ecumenical Orthodox Catholic Church, a tiny sect born out of a schism within the Ecumenical Catholic Church led by David Kalke, a former Mexican Lutheran pastor.

Operating from a rented castle near Todi, in central Italy, Muzzi’s church boasted barely a dozen followers. It was soon excommunicated by the local diocese for heresy.

Undeterred, Muzzi’s micro-church later merged with the Autocephalous Italian Orthodox Church headed by Alessandro Meluzzi, a psychologist, former Forza Italia deputy, and right-wing television personality.

In his monk’s habit, Muzzi became a curious figure on Italy’s religious fringe — equal parts financier, fraudster, and self-made cleric.

The Multi-Million Euro Fraud

Behind the religious theatrics, Muzzi continued pursuing financial ventures. Through a complex network of offshore companies in Mauritius, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, he launched two hedge funds — Pegasus Gold and Pegasus Royal.

These funds promised high returns to wealthy investors, but they were unauthorized and unregulated. In 2016, Italy’s financial regulator Consob discovered the scam, froze the funds, and alerted the Guardia di Finanza.

By the time authorities intervened, investors’ money — estimated at over €72 million — had vanished.

Muzzi was arrested in May 2018, charged with fraud and money laundering. His assets were seized, and in 2019, his trial began in Rome.

Investigators traced portions of the laundered money back to companies linked to Formations House — the same address where Link University’s offshore vehicles had once been domiciled.

A False Archbishop in a True Scandal

Even as legal proceedings unfolded, Muzzi continued to use his “Archbishop” persona to navigate Italy’s opaque world of religion and politics. In 2018, he visited Trisulti Abbey, the historic monastery later leased to Steve Bannon’s Institute for Human Dignity, which sought to create a right-wing “Academy of the Judeo-Christian West.”

Before Bannon’s group secured control, Muzzi had already offered to take over the abbey, claiming he could manage it through his religious foundation.

Dressed in monk’s robes, he toured the site and presented himself as a potential spiritual custodian. His visits, documented by locals, came just months before his arrest — an eerie prelude to his public unmasking.

A Pattern of Deception: The “Pope’s Organist” Scandal

Years earlier, in 2006, Muzzi had already flirted with scandal. Promoting a series of baroque music concerts, he was advertised as “Pope Benedict XVI’s organist.” The claim earned him media attention — until the Vatican issued two official statements denying any affiliation.

Cornered by reporters, Muzzi blamed the concert organizers for exaggerating his credentials “to make the program more interesting.”

This early incident, dismissed at the time as mere self-promotion, now reads like a foreshadowing of the fabrications that would define his later career.

The Role of Link University and Its Executives

Back in Rome, Link University’s leadership continues to deny any wrongdoing. In interviews with IRPI Media and La Stampa, CEO Pasquale Russo emphasized that the university was “defrauded, not complicit.”

Russo insisted that Muzzi acted independently and that Link Campus executives were unaware of the deeper financial and criminal networks surrounding Formations House.

Nevertheless, the pattern of connections — between Muzzi’s companies, Link’s leadership, and Formations House — paints a troubling picture.

The presence of Vanna Fadini and Vincenzo Scotti among the directors of an offshore company linked to a known shell-creation hub raises significant governance questions.

Compounding the issue is Link’s earlier association with Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese academic tied to the Russiagate investigation in the United States. Mifsud had taught at Link Campus, where he maintained relationships with many of the same administrators now implicated in the offshore revelations.

Whether coincidence or not, the convergence of academia, politics, and secrecy jurisdictions around Link University remains difficult to dismiss.

The Wider Implications: A Culture of Secrecy in Academia

The Link University case underscores a growing concern about how private universities and “research centers” can serve as gateways for financial manipulation and international influence operations.

Institutions like Link, which position themselves at the intersection of government consulting, security studies, and foreign policy, often enjoy special legal statuses and limited transparency requirements.

When combined with offshore structures, these conditions create fertile ground for hidden transactions, shadow ownership, and potential money laundering.

The #29 Leaks investigation revealed that Formations House had established thousands of similar companies used to move funds, conceal assets, or disguise beneficial ownership — all under the veneer of legitimacy provided by “academic” or “charitable” entities.

An Unfinished Story

Today, Link Campus University continues to operate under new management, though its reputation has suffered repeated blows from scandals linking it to political intrigue, financial irregularities, and questionable partnerships.

Muzzi remains a symbol of the chaos that can arise when academic ambition, personal opportunism, and offshore finance intertwine. His self-anointment as a religious leader — absurd on the surface — mirrors the performative respectability that often cloaks deeper corruption.

Meanwhile, the names of Fadini, Russo, Patrizi, and Scotti continue to appear in Italian court documents and investigative reports. Their roles in the offshore labyrinth of Formations House may never be fully clarified, but their presence in the files of #29 Leaks has already left an indelible mark on the legacy of Link University.

Conclusion

The scandal surrounding Link University and the “false archbishop” serves as a cautionary tale about how easily education, politics, and business can merge into opaque networks of power.

A university once proud of its connections to diplomats and ministers has now become a recurring case study in how offshore systems enable corruption under the guise of legitimacy.

At the center of it all stands a cast of improbable characters — professors turned politicians, administrators turned entrepreneurs, and a harpsichordist turned archbishop.

Their story, stitched together across London, Rome, and Todi, reveals how a façade of prestige can mask a world of fraud, secrecy, and deception.

The address 29 Harley Street — once merely a business registration hub — has become a symbol of how easily trust, both institutional and personal, can be sold for profit.

Written by

Nancy Drew

Updated

2 months ago