Priest says ill-gotten money went to school

The Express-Times ^ | September 22, 2006 | TOM QUIGLEY

[alice_in_bubbaland]

BELVIDERE | The former pastor accused of stealing more than $600,000 from charity denied wrongdoing after his initial court appearance Thursday and said the accusations tell just one side.

Authorities allege the Rev. Robert Ascolese spent some of the stolen money on himself and some went back to St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Washington.

Ascolese appeared in handcuffs before Superior Court Judge John Pursel as his attorney entered a not guilty plea to a long list of theft and records-tampering charges.

The priest, affectionately known to his former parishioners as "Father Bob," is accused of stealing more than $600,000 from various charities and a parish raffle during a four-year period beginning in 2001.

His arrest came only months after the June closing of the parish school.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

The Priest, Fr. Robert Ascolese was a childhood friend of my brother and his mother is my neighbor. This devlopement is very sad and dissapointing.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

His Mom was so proud of him being a Priest.

[Fudd Fan]

I saw your post on the NJ locale and responded to it. How sad for all involved.

(((alice)))

[alice_in_bubbaland]

I feel so sorry for his family! His Dad is very ill and I hope they are keeping this news from him.

Father Robert was a good man and his hopes of building a first class Catholic School for the area residents must have gotten the best of him.

The news of his corruption is devastating to say the least.

[DadOfTwoMarines]

Holy Embezzlement Batman

[spudsmaki]

What murky writing, the stringer who put this together is obviously a J scholl grad.

AFAICT, the priest drew a ghost winner in a large raffle he managed, then put the check into his own account. I take it he did the draw in private or with his helpers as witnesses.

A parish will usually makes a big to-do the night of the drawing, having a big dinner with a last chance to enter along with some sort of auction to bring in extra money. If the grand prize was a $100k this was a big operation. What happened here? Where was the chancellor, ushers, KC, and all the other lay people needed to make this go?

All the gaps in reporting, oh my.

So he gave the money back to parish activities, with the exception of a European trip he chaperoned?

[babydoll22]

Personally, I don't think this is a big deal. We had a monsignor who ran a raffle every year when we had our annual bazzar fund raiser. No one ever knew the winner of the raffle. After a while, the adults figured out what was going on. Everyone still bought tickets and laughed when the winner was declared at midnight on Saturday.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

"What murky writing, the stringer who put this together is obviously a J school grad."


I thought the same thing, though probably just a High Graduate. :)

I too, I am amazed that there were no other overseers during the drawing. There must have been accomplices.

Yes he was always going on trips to Poland and Rome. His Mom would go along too.

Things that make you go hmmmm....

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Our Parish holds an annual raffle too. The winners are published in the Sunday Bulletin. Come to think of it, I personally only new one winner after all those years.

The bigger problem is that Fr. Robert loaned money to parishioners, who in turn donated it back to the Parish in order to get matching funds from large corporations such as Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson.

[spudsmaki]

Loaned money to parishoners? As in a loan that isn't paid back? The IRS calls this income, that should show up on the line at the bottom, Other Income. It's like any other ill gotten gains.

Normally it wouldn't be caught, but J&J and the other foundations may squawk. In that case, the auditor will issue 1099s. These big dollar foundations can be pretty fussy about their money, they have oodles of CPAs and other licensed personnel who don't want to be associated with anything weird.

All sorts of angles to this.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Yep, all sorts of trouble too. If found guilty, he could go to prison for up to ten years and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[spudsmaki]

It was just pointed out to me there are more problems here.

If the loan did not result in any repayments, then this money given to the church can't be claimed as a charitable gift on the 1040. If a matching gift was claimed from a foundation as a result of this sham transaction/donation, that's mail fraud. You don't want to mess with postal inspectors.

Yeesh.

[babydoll22]

Just teaching them how to fish rather than giving them a fish.

[Coleus]

What ever happened to him?

[Coleus]

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'Sins' of the Msgr. on trial, Fr. Time, Now Rev. Rolex may Have a lot more of it on his Hands - DA

 

1-4 yrs. for Father Flim-Flam

---

Priest who stole $2 Million trades parish for prison Judge rejects leniency orders a 5-year term, Rumson, NJ

 

Church breaks silence on NJ, priest, former Air Force Chaplain, accused of theft of $500,000, Randolph, NJ

[Coleus]

One of the reasons why I'm in favor of independent and certified audits of all catholic parishes, hospitals, etc. Parishes should be audited at least in 3-yr. increments not only the cash but whether or not the facility is being used efficiently.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

From what I'm hearing, Fr. Robert (as his family calls him) wanted his Parish and School to succeed so badly, that me must have gone over to the "dark side". It will all come out during further investigation and subsequent trial. A court date is scheduled for Oct. 26.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

I couldn't agree more!

[Cicero]

I don't excuse it, but it looks as if he cut corners because he was desperate to fund the school, not for his own benefit.

I don't excuse it, but I can understand it. It's darned hard for a decent priest to keep his parish going these days, after the dissenters have worked for the past 40 years to undermine and wreck the Church in America. Many of the pews may be empty, and maybe the collection plate isn't bringing in enough to pay the fuel bills and maintenance.

I suppose the honest thing would have been to give up the school and find some other way of catechizing the kids, but I feel sorry for the priest and the parish. What a mess.