By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-12-18 18:52:50 | Updated at 2024-12-18 22:24:38
3 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Former employees stole at least $1.7 million from Milwaukee Catholic Charities, the organization’s vicar Fr. David Reith announced this week.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Fr. Reith wrote in a Dec. 16 email that certain employees “engaged in unauthorized use of funds for their and others’ personal benefit.” Two of the employees had been working for Catholic Charities when they were caught, and the other two people involved were former employees.
The fraud took place over several years, and the investigation has not determined the exact amount that was stolen. Leaders from Catholic Charities estimate that the culprits took $1.7 million between 2023 and 2024. The scheme was discovered in the spring of this year.
Law enforcement is investigating the case, but no criminal charges have been made.
Catholic Charities’ programs were not affected by the loss, and over the past two years they have served approximately the same number of people as usual.
The Sentinel also reports Catholic Charities took the following steps after they discovered the theft: “hired an interim finance leader with a background in nonprofits and internal controls; conducted an internal control assessment, ‘resulting in substantial improvements’; changed auditing firms.”
“While we are far from the first to experience a violation like this, it nevertheless has been difficult to process given we serve the poorest of the poor,” Fr. Reith wrote. “We are heartbroken that this happened and to have to share this news with you.”
The Supreme Court is set to hear a case of Wisconsin’s Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior against the state of Wisconsin, as CatholicVote previously reported.
Wisconsin’s state court ruled in March that Catholic Charities must pay employment tax since it serves Catholics and non-Catholics alike, making it a “non-religious” organization. Catholic Charities had previously been exempt from the state’s unemployment compensation program because they were considered a religious organization.
