TRENTON, NJ – Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Division of Criminal Justice announced today that a former officer of a Roman Catholic church in Monmouth County, New Jersey, has been charged with stealing more than $500,000 from the church.

Joseph A. Manzi, 78, of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, is charged by complaint with theft by unlawful taking (2nd degree) for allegedly using church funds for personal purchases.

“The defendant is alleged to have used his position of trust to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church,” Attorney General Platkin said. “As described in the complaint, this conduct was not to feed his family or for some kind of emergency, but to live a more lavish lifestyle. His alleged criminal acts will not be tolerated.”

“Members of the church who donated their hard-earned funds for the good of their parish should know that their contributions will be used for their intended purposes,” DCJ Director Theresa L. Hilton said. “Instead, this defendant allegedly enriched himself with church funds. He now faces criminal charges for his actions.”

According to documents filed in this case, Manzi is the former director of finance, operations, and development for the Church of Saint Leo the Great (St. Leo) in Lincroft, New Jersey. On approximately June 26, 2025, Manzi’s employment at St. Leo ended. Church staff later reviewed the church’s credit card statements and identified numerous unauthorized charges that were determined to allegedly be for Manzi’s personal benefit.

Further review and investigation of the account activity of St. Leo’s credit accounts revealed Manzi allegedly fraudulently used the church’s credit accounts to make over $300,000 in unauthorized purchases of goods and services and separately diverted over $200,000 in cash from St. Leo for his personal benefit from January 11, 2019, through May 7, 2025. Staff members stated Manzi had sole control of the church’s credit cards, which carried his name.

The investigation to date has determined Manzi allegedly fraudulently used St. Leo’s credit cards to make unauthorized purchases and payments of more than $300,000 for event vendors, vehicle repairs, financing, and purchases, including a Cadillac SUV; luxury clothing; personal home repairs and services; personal medical and dental payments; sports event tickets including New York Yankees games; payments to fraternal organizations; chartered fishing trips; and personal insurance.

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Conner Ouellette.

These charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Second-degree charges carry a sentence of five to ten years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000.

Attorney General Platkin would like to thank the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Middletown Township Police Department for their outstanding police work in assisting with the investigation.

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MILWAUKEE, WI – A former Milwaukee pastor pleaded guilty to stealing money from the church he served and was sentenced to probation on Friday.

Prosecutors said 42-year-old Mauricio Fernandez-Boscan used the St. Adalbert Parish credit card to make personal purchases that totaled more than $33,000 from 2018 to 2022.

Court records show Fernandez-Boscan pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts. He was not ordered to pay restitution, but he was ordered to write a letter of apology to the church and complete 100 hours of community service.

A criminal complaint said Fernandez-Boscan served as a church administrator who oversaw all financial matters for the parish and school. Investigators said they found he used funds to pay personal bills, take trips to Mexico and Italy, make payments to a law firm and more.

The parish said Fernandez-Boscan did not have consent to use the parish funds to pay for personal matters, according to the complaint. Prosecutors said he was placed on leave in April 2022 when concerns were raised about excessive purchases.

FOX6 News reached out to St. Adalbert for comment when charges were filed and was referred to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, who said in a statement, in part:

“The Archdiocese of Milwaukee conducted an audit and reported our findings to police, in keeping with the process we have in place for situations like this. Father is restricted from ministry while the case is pending.”

The Brief

• • A former Milwaukee pastor pleaded guilty to stealing money from the church.
  • The 42-year-old was sentenced to probation and ordered to write an apology.
  • Prosecutors said he embezzled more than $33,000 over the years.

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NASSAU COUNTY, FL — A woman is accused of embezzling more than half a million dollars from a church.

The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office arrested 44-year-old Melissa Ganey English on charges of embezzlement from Amelia Baptist Church.

According to the sheriff’s office, English served as the church’s financial secretary for 11 years and allegedly embezzled more than $570,000 from Amelia Baptist Church between Jan. 2019 and Oct. 2024.

Two new church financial committee members noticed discrepancies after reviewing bank documents and records, finding that funds were lower than they should have been. After reviewing credit card statements from a church credit card issued directly to English, they discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars had been used for her personal expenses.

English was fired, and the church hired a contractor to review all financial transactions from 2019 to 2024. The contractor found numerous discrepancies and fraudulent charges.

According to the sheriff’s office, English embezzled nearly $40,000 from the church in 2019.

In 2020, she embezzled nearly $90,000 through unauthorized charges, personal credit card payments and additional payroll payments to herself.

In 2021, English embezzled more than $100,000, spending funds on Amazon purchases, SeaWorld tickets, Hey Dude Shoes, hotel stays, airlines and a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon.

In 2022, English embezzled nearly $125,000 on purchases including cruise lines, Airbnb rentals, concert tickets, and more.

In 2023, she embezzled just over $123,000 on fraudulent charges at Amazon, hotels, and Walmart.

In 2024, she continued issuing herself additional payroll payments and embezzled more than $90,000, which included spending on cruise lines, baseball tickets, hotels and other personal expenses.

She has been charged with grand theft over $100,000, a first-degree felony, for knowingly and unlawfully using the church’s credit card for personal expenses totaling over $500,000.

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LUXEMBOURG — Catholics in Luxembourg have expressed shock over a massive theft at their church’s Caritas charity, while hoping the scandal will not halt donations ahead of Pope Francis’ September visit.

“We are astonished — we never thought such a thing could happen,” said Gerard Kieffer, press officer for the Luxembourg Archdiocese. “But Caritas is legally and juridically independent of the church, so while we can anticipate negative consequences, reflections are underway as to how these might be limited.”

The church representative spoke to OSV News as investigations continued into the reported theft of 61 million euros ($67 million) from Caritas, one of Luxembourg’s largest charities, in fraudulent bank loans and transfers.

He said efforts were being made to “find solutions,” adding that the Catholic Church would issue a statement once the scandal’s parameters became clearer.

Meanwhile, a local Catholic priest said Luxembourg, which borders Germany, France and Belgium, was tightly regulated as a “financial hub,” fuelling consternation among church members as to “how one person could steal so much money.”

“This is a spectacular piece of embezzlement, and there appears to have been little if any competent oversight as this staffer used Caritas collateral to secure the loans,” the priest, who asked not to be named, told OSV News.

“It’s good that the alleged perpetrator was quickly identified and arrested. But people are wondering how this could have happened — and whether they can still donate to this Catholic charity with any confidence.”

Caritas confirmed July 19 it had filed a criminal complaint about misappropriated funds, pledging to “cooperate fully” with investigators, while continuing its mission of “supporting the most disadvantaged.”

Media reports said the money was diverted from the charity between February and July into bank accounts in Spain, while a female staffer had been bailed out after surrendering to police but denying theft charges.

In a July 22 interview with the French-language RTL agency, Caritas Director General Marc Crochet said he felt “conned” and “dumbfounded” by the revelations, insisting the Catholic organization, founded in 1932, remained “trustworthy.”

He added that the charity, which supports victims of poverty, homelessness and trafficking, as well as migrants and refugees, currently had 28 million euros ($30.6 million) in its account, mostly made up of government-assigned funds.

Meanwhile, in a July 23 statement, Caritas said it was counseling its “much shaken” employees and volunteers, and had received “numerous messages of solidarity and support from institutions, private companies and individuals.”

However, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Xavier Bettel, branded the embezzlement “sickening” and warned it would impact “the poorest people” both at home and worldwide.

Meanwhile, the country’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, said July 24 the charity, which is committed to Catholic social teaching, had already obtained almost half the 45 million euros ($49 million) in government funding expected in 2024, and would receive no further state assistance until the crisis was settled.

In an Aug. 6 statement, Caritas said it had set up a “crisis committee,” headed by economic consultant Christian Billon and supported by the accountant firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to “restore confidence with all stakeholders,” and was also creating new entities to maintain its national and international activities.

Meanwhile, the Luxembourg Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Aug. 6 the charity had fallen victim to a “fake president method,” or “CEO fraud,” aimed at bypassing standard authorization procedures to procure payment of fake invoices, adding that it was still ascertaining the extent of the fraud.

Catholics traditionally make up two-thirds of the 662,000 inhabitants of Luxembourg, whose church was placed under direct Vatican supervision by St. John Paul II in 1988 and reduced its parishes from 274 to 33 in a 2017 reorganization to cope with falling Mass attendance rates.

Auxiliary Bishop Léon Wagener of Luxembourg, told OSV News he understood public interest in the “Caritas scandal,” but added that the church, headed by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a member of the pope’s advisory council and relator-general of the Synod of Bishops, had not yet made a public statement.

Meanwhile, the director of the church’s “Reech eng Hand” pastoral program for refugees, Marie-Christine Ries, said she hoped the crisis would not fuel wider “public hostility.”

“With evidence still being collected, it’s too soon to say what lessons might be learned,” Ries told OSV News. “But we are a Catholic church organization, working from private donations with no government funding — so we must count on a continued willingness to give to projects like ours.”

The Caritas scandal broke amid preparations for a Sept. 26 Luxembourg stopover by Pope Francis, ahead of a four-day visit to neighboring Belgium for the sixth centenary of its Catholic universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve.

In a joint statement for OSV News, Caritas Europa in Brussels and Caritas Internationalis in Rome said their 162 member-charities were “deeply saddened and alarmed” at the “financial appropriations,” and had been “in close contact” with offers of support.

They added that Caritas Luxembourg was a “highly-valued, autonomous member” of both networks, and was required by statute to “meet minimum standards of governance, organizational infrastructure, financial viability, accountability and compliance with professional standards and ethical codes of conduct.”

“Caritas Internationalis … is continuously working” with national Caritas members “to ensure compliance with international standards and continual improvement of their systems and procedures,” said the statement, co-signed by Maria Nyman and Alistair Dutton, the heads of Caritas Europe and Caritas Internationalis, respectively.

“Caritas’ Members financial systems and procedures are regularly internally and externally assessed as part of the Management Standards, and improvement plans are put in place to address any weaknesses that are identified,” the statement said.

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VATICAN CITY — A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges and nine other defendants received a combination of guilty verdicts and acquittals among the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a 2 ½ year trial.

Becciu’s lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said he respected the sentence but would appeal.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said the outcome “showed we were correct.”

The trial focused on the Vatican secretariat of state’s 350 million euro investment in developing a former Harrod’s warehouse into luxury apartments. Prosecutors alleged Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros to cede control of the building.

Becciu, the first-ever cardinal to be prosecuted in the Vatican’s criminal court, was accused of embezzlement-related charges in two tangents of the London deal and faced up to seven years in prison.

In the end, he was convicted of embezzlement stemming from the original investment of 200 million euros in a fund that bought into the London property, as well as for his 125,000 euro donation of Vatican money to a charity run by his brother in Sardinia. He was also convicted of using Vatican money to pay an intelligence analyst who in turn was convicted of using the money for herself.

The trial had raised questions about the rule of law in the city state and Francis’ power as absolute monarch, given that he wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial authority and had exercised it in ways the defense says jeopardized a fair trial.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said the outcome “showed we were correct.”

Prosecutors accused Becciu of embezzlement for sending 125,000 euros in Vatican money to a Sardinian charity run by his brother. Becciu argued that the local bishop requested the money to build a bakery to employ at-risk youths and that the money remained in the diocesan coffers.

The tribunal acknowledged the charitable ends of the donation but convicted him of embezzlement, given his brother’s role.

Becciu was also accused of paying a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna, for her intelligence services. Prosecutors traced some 575,000 euros in wire transfers from the Vatican to a Slovenian front company owned by Marogna and said she used the money to buy luxury goods and fund vacations.

Becciu said he thought the money was going to pay a British security firm to negotiate the release of Gloria Narvaez, a Colombian nun taken hostage by Islamic militants in Mali in 2017.

He said Francis authorized up to 1 million euros to liberate the nun, an astonishing claim that the Vatican was willing to make ransom payment to al-Qaida-linked militants.

The tribunal found both Becciu and Marogna guilty and sentenced Marogna to three years and 9 months in prison.

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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Yesterday, Darla Bralley, 59, of Oklahoma City, was sentenced to serve 24 months in federal prison for embezzling more than $450,000 from St. Paul The Apostle Catholic Church, announced U. S. Attorney Robert J. Troester.

On August 17, 2022, Bralley was charged by Information with wire fraud, and making and filing a false tax return. According to the Information, beginning in early 2014 and continuing through at least January 2020, Bralley devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money from St. Paul. Bralley was employed as payroll administrator for St. Paul during this period and had the authority to issue checks for authorized expenses on behalf of the church. The information alleges Bralley issued approximately 198 unauthorized checks, drawn from St. Paul’s checking account, to pay for various personal items including personal credit card payments, utilities, and living expenses. Bralley also made approximately 1,068 fraudulent, unauthorized transfers from the St. Paul checking account to pay her personal expenses. In all, Bralley defrauded St. Paul out of approximately $451,177.54.

The Information also alleges that on her 2018 U. S. Individual Income Tax Return, Bralley reported a total income that was substantially lower than what she received during the year as a result of the fraud.

On September 29, 2022, Bralley pleaded guilty to the two-count Information. As part of her plea, Bralley admitted to embezzling 451,177.54 from the church and she further admitted that she did not declare those funds on her annual tax returns.

At the sentencing hearing Tuesday, U. S. District Judge Scott L. Palk sentenced Bralley to serve 24 months in federal prison and ordered Bralley to pay restitution in the amount of $544,173.54. In announcing the sentence, Judge Palk noted that $451,177.54 would be paid to St. Paul, and $92,996.00 would be paid to the IRS.

The investigation was conducted by agents from the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office, and the United States Secret Service. Assistant U. S. Attorney Charles Brown prosecuted the case.

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VERO BEACH, FL – A 72-year-old woman guilty of embezzling around $700,000 from Holy Cross Catholic Church on July 18 was ordered to prison for a decade followed by 20 years of probation.

Deborah Lynn True, a resident of Frederick, Colorado and a former parish administrator at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach, was also ordered to pay the church $697,138.98 in restitution after being released from prison, Circuit Judge Robert Meadows ruled during her sentencing hearing in the Indian River County Courthouse.

Standing before Meadows wearing a bright-colored print blouse and slacks, True remained silent as he imposed a sentence negotiated with state prosecutors during a May 1 hearing in which she pleaded no contest to first-degree grand theft. She was accused of misusing church donations over several years to pay off personal debts, records show.

The church is at 500 Iris Lane on Orchid Island.

The plea deal requires True to pay the restitution in equal monthly installments for the duration of her probation or face being returned to prison, court records show.

In sentencing True, Meadows said when she’s released from prison, she may not seek to terminate her probation term early and must make monthly restitution payments or face returning to prison.

“You will not return to the Holy Cross Catholic Church and you are subject to warrantless searches and seizures of yourself and your property,” Meadows told True. “Good luck to you ma’am.”

After court, Long said the only just sentence for True was a prison term.

“Stealing over $600,000 is bad enough, but taking it from a church and your fellow parishioners is especially egregious,” Long said.  “I thank the (Vero Beach Police Department) for bringing us such a strong case, and I believe the thoroughness of their investigation is why this matter resolved without a trial.”

True was arrested in September 2022 following a Vero Beach police investigation that began in December 2021 after the chief financial officer of the Diocese of Palm Beach reported True and the late Rev. Richard Murphy were suspected “of embezzling over $1 million in funds,” according to court filings.

Murphy was pastor at Holy Cross until he died at age 80 in March 2020. True retired in July 2020 and moved to Jacksonville, then Colorado.

An additional church bank account was discovered after a new pastor and bookkeeper were hired, an arrest affidavit stated.

According to police investigators, in 2012 True and Murphy opened a bank account hidden from the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, and that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners’ donations were fraudulently deposited into the account since 2015.

Nearly $550,000 was used to pay True’s personal lines of credit, and about $147,000 was deposited into True’s personal checking accounts, records show.

When police spoke with True via phone, she told investigators she transferred to the church in 1997 with Murphy. They had worked at a Catholic church in Stuart from the mid-1980s until 1997.

She said her title at Holy Cross was “parish administrator” and her job “included tasks such as scheduling events, human resources, bookkeeping and payroll.”

“She was the only person who would deposit checks received by Holy Cross,” detectives noted.

She eventually told investigators she used funds to pay off her personal debt, saying Murphy gave her permission.

Police reported Murphy also appeared to benefit from the money, but because of his death a criminal investigation wasn’t conducted to identify an amount.

In court, after Meadows imposed True’s punishment, she was fingerprinted, handcuffed and escorted to a holding cell to be transferred to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.

Her Vero Beach attorney Andy Metcalf later noted True was “left standing alone to be charged in this case when Father Murphy died and she remains alone now in taking responsibility. ”

“These cases can result in very favorable outcomes if there is an ability to pay restitution.  Ms. True was unable to do so,” he said. “I have received letters of anger and disgust and I have received letters of support for her.  One of the letters of support even questioning their fellow parishioners’ lack of compassion and forgiveness, wondering if Father Murphy was alive, would others in the church have been so harsh in their judgment.”

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RAPID CITY, SD — The federal court also ordered nearly $260,000 in restitution payments and $46,000 in back taxes.

A federal district court in South Dakota sentenced a priest to nearly eight years in prison. The court also ordered the priest to pay nearly $260,000 in restitution to three churches and $46,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as a result of his embezzlement.

Background

A Catholic priest in South Dakota devised a scheme to steal cash collected from parishioners by secretly entering the areas in three parish churches where weekly donations were stored. The priest entered the church buildings late in the evening, removing and replacing special, tamper-proof bank bags, and making multiple same-day deposits totaling tens of thousands of dollars of stolen cash donations in a personal account.

Between 2012 and 2018, he stole nearly $260,000. The priest filed false tax returns for tax years 2013 through 2017 and used the stolen money to purchase for himself over a dozen gold-plated chalices, numerous bronze statues, a $10,000 diamond ring, a grand piano, expensive Mont Blanc fountain pens, and other items.

Leaders at one of the churches suspected something was not right with their finances and installed a hidden video camera where weekly collections were stored. In April of 2018, surveillance footage caught the priest “red-handed” stealing money from a locked money bag, according to the court. The church contacted federal authorities, who began a review of the finances of the three churches dating back seven and a half years.

Once the priest was made aware of the investigation, he drained his bank account of $40,000 and bought a one-way plane ticket to Poland. From that point forward, the three churches’ cash collections increased, returning to pre-investigation levels, according to investigators.

The priest was arrested by federal agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in May of 2019, just before his flight was to depart.

The priest was charged with 50 counts of wire fraud, nine counts of money laundering, one count of interstate transportation of stolen money, and five counts of making and subscribing a false tax return. A jury found him guilty on all counts in March of 2020, and he was sentenced by a federal judge in November of 2020 to nearly eight years in prison.

In addition, he was ordered to pay nearly $260,000 in restitution to be split equally between the three churches, plus an additional $46,000 in restitution to the IRS.

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