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Government Lies, Corruption and Mismanagement
The Perfect Crime: Working For, and Stealing From, a Religious Institution in America
Nowhere else can you "get away with it" as easily. The United States of America places those who do business for religious institutions above the law, and we all must re-consider the Establishment Clause and religious immunity.
Four accused of skimming $2 mln from NY church By Daniel Trotta
LINK Four purchasing agents for the Roman Catholic church's New York Archdiocese were accused on Thursday of skimming more than $2 million from purchases made for schools, hospitals and convents. The nine-count indictment out of a Washington federal grand jury named four New York-area residents who were consultants at Institutional Commodity Services Inc. (ICS), the purchasing arm of the archdiocese, the Justice Department said in a statement. The four defendants, Vincent Heintz, Nanette Melera, Joseph DeRusso and Michael O'Shaughnessy, are accused of taking in $1.2 million from vendors supplying goods to the archdiocese and of diverting at least $1 million to shell companies they controlled. ICS, a not-for-profit corporation, buys goods and services for the archdiocese. The four defendants selected vendors who provided products such as milk, juice and food for schools. Authorities allege they charged illegal commissions from 1996 to 2004, forcing the archdiocese to pay artificially inflated prices and sharing the commissions among themselves. DeRusso's lawyer, Alan Zegas, said his client would plead not guilty. Lawyers for the other defendants were not immediately available for comment. The archdiocese cooperated with investigators ever since being approached by the FBI two years ago, said Joseph Zwilling, a church spokesman. The suspects were fired from ICS in March 2004, he said. "We are shocked and disappointed about what allegedly took place at ICS, and we have put into place new procedures and better financial oversight to prevent something like this from happening again," Zwilling said. The four had yet to be taken into custody on Thursday afternoon as authorities were making arrangements for them to surrender voluntarily, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. They face charges of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, while DeRusso and Heintz are charged with conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. DeRusso also faces four counts of tax evasion. Clergy Abuse Tracker |
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