Oh No! Report: Another Priest In A Big Embezzlement

by Gary Snyder

Just last month, Nonprofit Imperative had a story about a priest in Michigan that admitted to stealing almost $600,000 and was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Now another Catholic priest is in the news having swiped collection-plate donations to pay for drug-fueled sex romps, “illicit and prescription drugs” a $264,000 home in Brick, NJ, and paid $1,075.50 a month for a East Harlem apartment, court papers say. 

In addition to skimming $20 bills from the collection plate there, Rev. Peter Miqueli ripped off money raised to buy a new pipe organ at his former church.

He also put his sex friend in charge of the Cabrini thrift shop, where Miqueli “misappropriated and diverted money . . . for his own personal use” and destroyed financial records to cover up the theft, the suit says.

The best guess is that he took $2 million from two parishes.

The suit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court also charges that the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Timothy Dolan knew about Miqueli’s “illegal scheme” and did nothing for a period of nine years. (nypost.com)

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