New Jersey Priest Profits from Phony Power Ball Raffles

Indictment claims that clergyman skimmed over $600,000 from 2001 to 2005, supposedly raising money for a parish school that has since been forced to close.

Rev. Robert Ascolese, a popular pastor in a rural corner of northwest New Jersey, has been charged with faking winners of a regular lottery event.  The story has been picked up by the New York Times,  but the more detailed and colorful coverage comes from the New Jersey Star-Ledger, by Brad Parks and Mike Frassinelli (Priest says raffle winners were 'usually' real people).

They tell us that Father Bob was not one to live lavishly, but he took many charity trips to places like Ecuador and Kenya. 

People in the small town of Washington (pop. 6,400) did wonder why the raffle winners always seemed to be from out of town.  And why did the priest fly back from a vacation in Ireland so that he could draw the winning raffle ticket himself, only to fly back the next day. 

The deception unraveled when a 20-year-old college student doing bookkeeping as a summer job opened up a bank statement and found two checks for $100,000, both with the same check number.  She informed a church trustee, and it eventually led to an audit by the diocese and the removal of Rev. Ascolese from the parish late last year. 

Tom Quigley of the Express Times raised the question of internal controls at the parish.  A spokesperson for the Diocese of Metuchen said that parishes are required to make an annual financial report to the diocese, but that audits generally take place once every three years. 

There were other accusations in addition to the raffle scam:

• William and Stella Quilban, a couple from a neighboring town, are accused of conspiring with Fr. Ascolese to generate phony matching contribution claims to their employer, Merck & Company. 
• Fr. Ascolese is also accused of reporting fake donations to the homeless, which were then reimbursed by Catholic Charities (no Form 990, church institution). 

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