ROME: A former Vatican accountant already under house arrest and on trial for alleged corruption and attempted money laundering has been notified of fresh charges against him, Italy’s financial police said on Tuesday.

The police said they had seized Monsignor Nunzio Scarano’s luxury 17-room apartment as well as nearly 9.0 million euros ($12 million) on current accounts, including 2.2 million held in the Vatican bank.

“This is very significant,” the police said in a statement, a reference to unprecedented levels of cooperation between Vatican and Italian judicial authorities on a high-profile financial crime case.

The police said a priest in Scarano’s hometown of Salerno who was an aide to the monsignor, Father Luigi Noli, has also been charged and put under house arrest.

A total of 52 people are being investigated in the case, including a notary who allegedly helped organise the money laundering scheme and lawyers, doctors and businesspeople who are suspected of making use of it.

Scarano is accused of taking cheques marked “Donation for the Poor” and in return giving cash from accounts at the Vatican bank, officially known as the Institute of Religious Works or IOR under its Italian acronym.

The police said they had also seized two bank accounts at a branch near the Vatican of Italy’s UniCredit, one in Scarano’s name and the other belonging to a company in which the prelate held 99 percent of shares.

One of the cash withdrawals made by Scarano and traced by police was for 588,248 euros and the police said he gave it to 50 people and used it to pay back a mortgage.

They said they managed to find at least five million euros that Scarano “had at his disposal” and alleged he made extensive property investments in Salerno.

The prelate’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, said his client was in a depressive state and has made a request for him to be able to visit a psychiatrist.