New Jersey Pastor Faces Charges of Theft
September 22, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
The former pastor of a New Jersey church has been accused of stealing $600,000 in charity-raffle proceeds and Catholic Charities donations, reports The New York Times.
Father Robert Ascolese is pleading not guilty to charges of theft, forgery, tampering with public records, conspiracy, and theft by deception, a total of 32 counts.
The indictment accuses Father Ascolese of selling thousands of $100 tickets in a raffle to support a school, then pocketing the half of the money that was supposed to go to the raffle’s winner.
He is also charged with defrauding Catholic Charities of money reimbursed for donations he said he made to homeless people but never actually did, and additional charges related to efforts to seek bogus matching gifts from corporations.
