A Catholic pastor has had to answer to the district court in Mönchengladbach since Wednesday for breach of trust and money laundering. According to a court spokesman, the indictment was read out at the beginning. The 59-year-old is said to have diverted church funds totaling one hundred thousand euros and laundered further funds from fraud. He is accused of 145 cases of commercial embezzlement and 65 cases of commercial money laundering.
According to the indictment, from January 2017 to March 2018, the man was authorized to dispose of the donation account of several parishes as a pastor. This account was intended exclusively for church purposes. He had made numerous transfers to foreign accounts that had nothing to do with church activities. He was relieved of his post in March 2018 after the transactions were exposed.
The accused is said to have used his own and third-party accounts to transfer funds from fraudulent offenses abroad. The fraud victims had been urged by unknown backers to make payments to these accounts. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the accused then forwarded the funds to recipients who were also unknown. This is about a volume of around ten thousand euros.
The fraud offenses are primarily so-called advance payment fraud, in which credit is promised if processing fees are paid in advance. In addition, it is also said to be about fake donations against payment of fees and so-called romance scamming, in which perpetrators pretend that women are in love in order to get money. According to the public prosecutor, the accused was aware that the funds came from criminal offenses.
The court set four more days of trial. A verdict could come on August 30th.
tbh/cfm
2023-07-12 16:46:59
#Pastor #court #embezzlement #money #laundering #Mönchengladbach
