While under indictment in the US, Sindona staged a bogus kidnapping in August 1979 to conceal a mysterious 11-week trip to Sicily before his scheduled fraud trial. Bontade's brother in law Giacomo Vitale (a freemason, like Bontade) was one of the persons who organised Sindona's travel. The real purpose of the kidnapping was to issue sparsely disguised blackmail notes to Sindona's past political allies – among them Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti – to engineer the rescue of his banks and recuperate Cosa Nostra's money. The plot failed and after his “release” Sindona surrendered to the FBI.