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	I-Team: Former CFO for Cleveland Catholic Diocese on Trial MyFox Cleveland May 27, 2008 http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6635696&version=2&locale= EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 CLEVELAND -- The defense team for the former chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese sought to discredit the government's key witness in federal court today. Former CFO Joe Smith is on trial for allegedly taking almost $800,000 in kickbacks. Smith says he didn't steal the money, but that it was a raise paid in unusual ways. Smith's defense team asserts that unusual types of payments used to be common at the diocese. Four years ago, Fox 8 I-Team Reporter Bill Sheil broke the story of the alleged kickback scheme within the diocese. The government indicted Smith in 2006. Smith's former boss, Father John Wright, testified that he authorized a one time, lump sum payment of about $250,000 to keep Smith from pursuing other jobs. Wright says that was the only money he authorized. But Smith's attorney, Phil Kushner, sought to show that Father Wright's memory was fuzzy. Father Wright says he thought he signed a blank check on behalf of the diocese that he assumed would be made out for $250,000 and would me made out to Smith, but no such check has ever been found. Father Wright also acknowledged that signatures on documents showing an account set up for Smith looked like his writing. But Father Wright said he couldn't remember signing those documents. Father Wright's $250,000 payment was kept secret from Bishop Anthony Pilla for eight years. When Wright finally told Pilla in 2004, Kushner asked, "Did you tell... Bishop (Pilla) that you had signed a blank check?" Father Wright replied: "I don't know that I said it in those words...." The diocese issued a statement that says in part that it is the victim of the alleged crime, and is not on trial. The diocese says that, while it's difficult to guard against fraud, it has taken steps to strengthen its financial controls.
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