SELECTED CHURCH EMBEZZLEMENT CASE HISTORIES

Priest Pleads Guilty To Stealing From Own Church
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS  -  July 21, 2007

CHICAGO (AP) A Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty Friday to charges he stole $190,000 from his North Side church to fund international vacations and expensive clothing, food and liquor.  Rev. Mark Sorvillo was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to Class 1 theft, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office. He had faced a maximum sentence of 30 years.  . . . . . . 

Prosecutors said Sorvillo helped himself to money from the weekly offerings at St. Margaret Mary Parish in West Rogers Park starting in 1998 until he resigned in February 2006. He also is accused of taking donations from baptisms and weddings.

Sorvillo was accused of spending the money on shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus, pricey meals and European vacations using a secret money-market account and credit cards issued to the parish.

Sorvillo's spending came to the attention of the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2000, when officials conducted an audit of the parish. That audit uncovered a $104,000 discrepancy between school tuition payments collected and the amount deposited.  Prosecutors and police said they weren't contacted until February [2007].

Priest, Now Accused of Theft, Fought Audit
THE NEW YORK TIMES  -  March 10, 2007
 MIAMI, March 9 — One of two Roman Catholic priests accused of stealing and misappropriating as much as $8.6 million donated by parishioners in South Florida sought to end an audit of church finances, complaining to diocesan officials that the financial scrutiny was undignified and a waste of money, according to documents released by prosecutors.  . . . . . . 

The diocesan audit eventually reported finding $3 million in off-book investment accounts. Father [name withheld] adopted Father [name withheld] bank accounts and methods, the police said.  Forensic accountants used statistics, including census figures dating from 1963, to extrapolate the amount of tithed money that might have been misappropriated over the years, settling on an estimate of $8.6 million.

Parish business manager faces charge he stole over $600,000
Police say he took collections, other funds to bet on slots

By Richard Wronski, Tribune staff reporter
Freelance reporters Barbara Bell and Mark Shuman contributed to this report
Published December 15, 2005

Over five years, the business manager of a Roman Catholic parish in Buffalo Grove stole more than $600,000 in collections and other church funds to feed a gambling habit that cost at least $1.8 million, authorities said Wednesday.  [name withheld], 68, used the money largely to feed slot machines at the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, authorities said.

"Our investigation found that [name withheld] was an avid gambler," said Cmdr. Mike Soucy of the Buffalo Grove Police Department, which conducted a five-month inquiry into the alleged theft at St. Mary Catholic Church. "For one person to do this is incredible."

A typical Sunday collection at St. Mary's might total $25,000 to $30,000, Soucy said, but authorities didn't disclose how much Suffoletto allegedly stole each week.

This was at least the sixth time in the last two years that authorities have filed criminal charges against Chicago-area church personnel over the theft of funds.

Priest Gets 4 Years For Pilfering Church Collections
Man Installed Wall Safe In Rectory To Stash Cash
NBC5.com  -  July 27/28, 2005
CHICAGO -- The former leader of a Southwest Side Roman Catholic parish was sentenced to serve four years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to laundering more than $1 million in pilfered collections. 

The Rev. [name withheld] has paid back $1.6 million he admitted to stealing during his tenure as pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Parish between December 1999 and his resignation in July 2004, prosecutors said. 

Providing a factual basis for the guilty plea, Assistant State's Attorney William Delaney said [name withheld] skimmed an average of $2,500 to $3,000 each week while serving as pastor of St. Bede between 1999 and last July. He initially would stash the stolen funds in his bedroom safe, without entering the donations in the church books, Delaney said. 

To conceal the stolen funds, [name withheld] made several trips a week to the bank and exchanged the funds for $100 bills, Delaney said. He later converted the cash into cashier checks and deposited them into various bank accounts, the attorney said. 

Church officials first became suspicious of [name withheld] after he resigned from the parish, and they noticed a large boost in cash contributions to the church, Delaney said. 

Church employees checked [name withheld] former bedroom in the rectory and found the hidden wall safe containing about $50,000 in cash and $600 in coins, Delaney said. [name withheld] had the safe installed in 1999, unknown to the church, he said. 

Starting in December 1999 and up until his resignation, [name withheld].  deposited at least $262,000 into the bank account of a girlfriend. In August, [name withheld] led investigators to a safe deposit box at an Evergreen Park bank, where he had stored $389,000 in cash, most of it bundled in envelopes of $10,000. 

Copyright 2005 by NBC5.com

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE  -  June 17, 2000
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - The 9 men who have accused defrocked priest, [name withheld] of molesting them when they were boys told a grand jury that [name withheld] would ply them with alcohol, let them drive his sports cars and used other enticements to keep them under his control for years. …………

The sexual abuse case is not the only legal problem for [name withheld]. Last fall, the San Francisco archdiocese filed a lawsuit accusing him of embezzling more than $250,000 donated by nuns and parishioners during his 16-year tenure at the two churches.  Prosecutors had already filed grand theft charges related to the lost funds, accusing him of embezzling church funds to finance a vacation home in Southern Calif. That case is still pending.

ASSOCIATED PRESS  -  May 12, 1999
PITTSBURGH, PA - A church secretary won't go to jail for helping a priest steal $25,000 from parish contributions, but she must pay the money back to the Catholic congregation in suburban Pittsburgh. 

[name withheld] pleaded no contest to one count of criminal conspiracy to commit theft in a deal that would keep her out of jail but require restitution, and ordered to pay $25,000.  Meanwhile, lawyers for the diocese filed motions asking that the court force [name withheld] to return property such as jewelry and clothing to the church. [name withheld] claims the items are her personal property.

Prosecutors said [name withheld] helped Fr. Walter Benz embezzle a fraction of the $1.5 million he allegedly stole over 25 years from collection baskets at two parishes in suburban Pittsburgh.  [name withheld] was the secretary at one of them where Benz was assigned in 1993. They spent the money on fancy cars, antique handguns and gambling trips to Atlantic City, among other items, prosecutors said.  Benz died at a nursing home last year before he could be prosecuted. He was 72.

THE COURIER, Findlay, Ohio  -  May 8, 1996
Woman Sentenced To Two Years In Church Theft Case
OTTAWA (AP)  A former church secretary on Tuesday was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing more than $411,000 from a church collection plate to help finance a lavish lifestyle.  [name withheld] also must repay $411,000 to St. Michael’ Roman Catholic Church in Kalida.  ..…  [name withheld] was convicted last month of one count of third-degree felony theft.  After she was convicted, her husband, [name withheld], was charged with one count of receiving stolen property, a second-degree felony……  [name withheld] was the secretary at St. Michael’ for 19 year.   .……  Hoying [the pastor] said the week after [name withheld] resigned, Sunday collections increased about $1,500.  The diocese then conducted an audit dating to 1990 and discovered that between $1,200 and $1,500 probably had been stolen each week.

FORT MYERS NEWS PRESS  -  Sunday, January 31, 1993
Man who pocketed $240,000 from church collection plates is jailed
DALLAS  -  A man trusted to count daily donations at a Roman Catholic church was sentenced to eight years in prison after he admitted pocketing more than $240,000 from collection plates.  [name withheld], 26, was given the job in 1986 by a former pastor at Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe.  He continued to impress the Rev. Larry Pichard, who made [the employee] the church's evening secretary in 1988.  "Extremely nice.  Polite.  Reserved.  Gentle-hearted," Pichard said.  "I assumed everything was OK.  I was wrong."

LOS ANGELES TIMES  -  October 23, 1992
Testimony Shows Priest Handled All Donations
Father [name withheld] always insisted on handling the collection money at St. Peter Claver Church in Simi Valley --even at other priests' Masses --according to testimony that led to his indictment on embezzlement charges.....  [the priest], 36, who is awaiting a Nov. 2 trial on two counts of grand theft, is accused of embezzling $60,000 in collection money from St. Peter Claver Church and from his previous parish, Sacred Heart Church, in Saticoy .....    An audit by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles showed that donations at both churches dipped noticeably during [the priest’ tenure, testified auditor Sandra Smith .…

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL  -  Friday, November 9, 1990
Priest indicted in theft of funds from parish
The Rev. [name withheld], former pastor of St. Anthony’ Church in North Providence, was indicted yesterday by a statewide grand jury on charges of stealing $200,000 in parish funds between 1985 and 1988.  "The investigation shows that [the priest] regularly skimmed money from the [Sunday] collections and embezzled funds from several parish accounts," [Atty. Gen. James E.] O'Neil said.

Church worker indicted [same case]
In an unrelated case, the grand jury also indicted [name withheld], 23, of North Providence, an employee of St. Anthony’ in 1987-88, on a charge of embezzling from the parish.  O'Neil said that [the employee] is accused of embezzling $58,000 in parish funds for himself ... [the priest] and [the employee] are not charged with working together.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE  -  January 12, 1990
Priest gets 6 months in jail in church embezzlement case
    OSHKOSH, WIS - A 68-year-old Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation on charges he embezzled more than $45,000 from a church where he served as pastor.

Winnebago County Circuit Judge William Carver also ordered [the priest] on Wednesday to perform 200 hours of public service and to repay the church $46,000.  [the priest], former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Neenah, pleaded no contest Nov. 9 to one count of felony theft and was convicted.  The criminal complaint contended the priest stole $45,686 from donations, collection envelopes and fees collected by the church between 1984 and 1988.

BOSTON GLOBE  -  March 25, 1983
ARREST OF LAY LEADER STUNS CATHOLIC PARISH IN CONN.
OAKVILLE, Conn.  -  ……… St Mary Magdalen Church had been unable to pay its bills for several years.  But it wasn’ until this January that Revs. John Lynch and Ralph Colicchio, alarmed at what they said was a discrepancy between the size of the parish and the amount of Sunday donations, asked police to investigate possible skimming from the collection plates…… [the priests] were not aware of the extent of the loss until they began to count the collection money themselves.  When they did, the receipts jumped from approximately $4,000 a month, as recorded by [name withheld], to $12,000 a month.  [NOTE: this would be a good point at which to test your math skills]
THE MIAMI HERALD (same case)
CONNECTICUT  -  Woman fails to deny church embezzlement
WATERBURY  -- A Waterbury woman has pleaded no contest to charges that she embezzled $60,000 from her church.  Police charged that [name withheld], 58, had taken the money from St. Mary Magdalen Church between Dec. 1, 1979, and Oct. 1, 1982 --while she was counting collection money.  Waterbury  Superior Court Judge Anthony DeMayo accepted [name withheld] plea and found her guilty.