His Mom was so proud of him being a Priest.
Holy Embezzlement Batman
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?
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.
What ever happened to him?
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.
The Star-LedgerBELVIDERE | A Warren County priest accused of misappropriating nearly $1 million through church raffles with fake winners, legally bought tickets in the names of "alter egos" only so he could support his charities, his lawyer said Thursday. "Like Robin Hood?" Superior Court Judge John Pursel asked.
"I've heard that phrase," replied Melvin M. Wright Jr. of New York City, Robert J. "Father Bob" Ascolese's lawyer. Saying that buying the raffle tickets was a legal way the priest could help his financially troubled Catholic school in Washington Borough, Wright is seeking to dismiss all but 11 of the 32 charges against Ascolese. Pursel will give a written decision on whether there is sufficient evidence to sustain an indictment against Ascolese. "There was a mountain of evidence presented," Warren County Assistant Prosecutor Craig Barto said.
In another motion, Wright seeks to dismiss charges that Ascolese defrauded a corporate matching gift program, on the grounds that the prosecution tampered with witnesses. The prosecution has until March 20 to respond. The next court hearing is April 3. Wanting to ensure a sellout of 4,000 tickets in the 50-50 raffle that raised $200,000 a year for St. Joseph's Catholic Academy, Ascolese or his charitable organizations bought $100 tickets in the names of family, friends and people in his recovery-assistance program classes, Wright said. Wright said Ascolese, 46, was going by advice he received from a since-deceased attorney who had extensive experience in the gaming industry.
The raffles in question were from 2001 to 2005. Wright said every ticket had the same 1-in-4,000 chance of winning and that Ascolese, while an intelligent man, didn't have the "clairvoyance that he knows what tickets are going to be pulled out of that bag." "Nobody saw him doing anything inappropriate on stage when these tickets were handed out," Wright said. "He's got great stage presence, there's no question about it," Pursel said.