Italian Priest Accused of Pilfering Hospital Cash

WHEC
April 4, 2013

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2986739.shtml?cat=10054

Italian police have arrested a Catholic priest accused of pocketing 4 million euros ($5.1 million) from the coffers of a Catholic hospital he ran and helping run up 600 million euros in debts that forced the clinic into bankruptcy and prompted the Vatican to intervene.

Italy’s financial police placed the Rev. Franco Decaminada, until 2011 the CEO of the IDI dermatological hospital in Rome, under house arrest Thursday and detained two other people while seizing a Tuscan farmhouse police say he purchased with stolen money.

The plight of IDI workers, who haven’t received paychecks for months, prompted Benedict XVI in one of his last acts as pope to name a delegate to take over the religious order that owns the hospital, though he ruled out providing financial assistance.