BishopAccountability.org
	Cleveland Catholic Diocese Starts Hot Line to Report Theft of Church Money By Michael O'Malley Plain Dealer February 27, 2009 http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/cleveland_catholic_diocese_sta.html The Cleveland Catholic Diocese has established a "financial misconduct" hot line for reporting thefts or suspicious dealings involving church funds. The hot line comes in the wake of the convictions of the diocese's former chief financial officer, Joseph Smith, and Anton Zgoznik, who did accounting work for the diocese. Smith had been accused of bilking the diocese of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a kickback scheme. He was acquitted of most of the charges, but convicted of six tax crimes. Zgoznik was convicted of conspiracy and money laundering. Diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said the Smith and Zgoznik cases were not the main reasons for establishing the hot line. He said the diocese regularly gets questions from parishioners about where their money goes after it hits the collection baskets and how Catholic Charities funds are spent. "We have been in the process of trying to show transparency and accountability for all expenditures and all funds," Tayek said. The hot line, established by the Diocesan Finance Council, an advisory group of lay people, is a tool to help keep an eye on the money, said Tayek. Callers can report tips anonymously at the toll-free hot line number, 1-888-235-1723.
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