By George Mast
Courier-Post
July 16, 2008
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/NEWS01/807160365
The bishop of the Diocese of Camden sold his $400,000 North Wildwood beach home last year to a man who is now accused of engineering a massive fraud.
Bishop Joseph Galante, who once served as an undersecretary at the Vatican, in March 2007 sold his townhouse on West Oak Avenue to Raffaello Follieri, a 29-year-old Italian businessman.
On June 24, federal prosecutors in New York charged Follieri with posing as a Vatican representative to fleece investors in a company that sought to buy and redevelop Catholic Church property. Bail was set at $21 million for Follieri, who is accused of wire fraud and money laundering.
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| Bishop Joseph Galante sold his $400,000 beach home last year to a man who is now federally charged with a dozen counts of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. |
Prosecutors say Follieri spent up to $6 million of investors' money on a lavish lifestyle that included a posh Manhattan apartment, expensive meals and clothing, and privately chartered jet travel.
Andrew Walton, spokesman for the Camden Diocese, said the diocese became aware of fraud accusations only after Galante had sold his home to Follieri, in the name of a limited liability corporation.
"That was a legitimate agreement," Walton said of the home sale. "There was nothing unusual about it at all."
Walton said the Vatican encouraged diocese leaders to work with the Follieri Group, of which Follieri was chairman and chief executive, but that Galante's home sale was the only business transaction that occurred.
"The diocese -- like many dioceses -- was led to believe the Follieri Group had the affirmation of the Vatican and not only that but that the Vatican itself encouraged dioceses, including Camden, to work with the Follieri group," he said.
"The bishop and the diocese operated under the premise that they were legitimate, that they were who they said they were and that their work was geared toward church organizations and the projects they engaged in would be for community benefit," Walton said.
A few months after the home's sale, Follieri's former business partner, billionaire Ron Burkle, sued Follieri for alleged improper spending.
According to public records, Galante bought the town home for $114,000 in 1996.
Walton said that at the time, Galante, a Philadelphia native, was living in Texas. He put the home up for sale in 2006, after returning to this area.
The four-bedroom home is now listed for sale for $399,000 on the Web site of Budd Realty Inc.
Walton said Galante met Follieri in 2004 after receiving a telephone call from the Vatican, but never made any diocesan business deals with him.
The diocese does not own parish properties, Walton said.
Walton said that interaction with Follieri had no relation to the diocese's restructuring plan to merge many of its 124 parishes, reducing the total number to 66.
He said parish planning representatives recommended mergers based on a priest shortage and other factors.
But a group opposed to the restructuring plan, The Council of Parishes of Southern New Jersey, demanded "an immediate halt" to the program. It said some proposed parish mergers have "raised questions based on the appearance that churches . . on valuable real estate were particularly targeted for closure."
According to the FBI, Follieri claimed the Vatican had appointed him to manage its financial affairs and that he had met with the Pope in Rome.
Prosecutors allege that Follieri's scheme unraveled when the principal investor sought an audit of the partnership and demanded an explanation for some expenditures.
Staff writer Jim Walsh and the Associated Press contributed to this article. Reach George Mast at (856) 486-2401 or gmast@camden.gannett.com.
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