N.Y. Charity Official’s Widow to Repay Embezzled $1-Million

The wife of a now-deceased executive at a Catholic charity has agreed to repay a large chunk of the nearly $1.8-million he was found to have misappropriated from the organization, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Kathleen Schroeck will relinquish nearly $1-million in cash and other assets to the New York office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, for which Raymond Schroeck served as chief financial officer. New York state authorities said they did not find evidence that Ms. Schroeck knew of the years-long scheme, which was discovered by an employee of the charity a week after her husband died in September 2012.

Investigators said Mr. Schroeck began embezzling funds in 2003, adding his wife’s name to organizational checks that came to him for processing and depositing them in accounts he controlled. Under an agreement with state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, the charity, which does missionary work for the Roman Catholic Church, will overhaul its accounting practices and tighten financial controls.