Troy priest, parish administrator indicted, accused of taking nearly $700K from church

By Dave Phillips
Macomb Daily
April 23, 2014

http://www.macombdaily.com/general-news/20140423/troy-priest-parish-administrator-indicted-accused-of-taking-nearly-700k-from-church

A priest and a parish administrator have been indicted on federal charges, accused of stealing nearly $700,000 from a Troy church.

Edward Belczak, 69, of Troy, and Janice Verschuren, 67, of Bloomfield Hills, were charged in a five-count indictment, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced Wednesday.

Belczak and Verschuren are accused of stealing money and diverting funds from the church and the Archdiocese of Detroit “for their unjust enrichment, then (concealing) their criminal acts by creating or verifying false financial reports that were submitted to the Archdiocese,” McQuade’s office stated.

Authorities accused Belczak and Verschuren of diverting funds in multiple ways, including the theft of:

• Nearly $500,000 donated or bequeathed by parishioners to the church.

• More than $26,000 in commissions paid to St. Thomas More Travel Group.

• More than $33,000 owed to St. Thomas More Church by Diocesan Publications.

The pair is also accused of using $109,570 from the church to pay closing costs on Verschuren’s sale of her condominium in Palm Beach, Fla., to Belczak.

Belczak provided false financial reports to the Archdiocese of Detroit, under-reporting the parish’s operating receipts, in an effort to conceal the theft, McQuade stated.

Belczak’s assets were seized by the federal government in January, a year after he was asked to step aside from his duties at the church, which is located on North Adams Road.

The Catholic Archdiocese reported that Belczak had paid a “ghost employee” $240,000 and took $92,000 more in compensation than church policies allow.

Belczak’s funds were frozen and sealed in February 2013 after investigators at the Troy Police Department obtained a search warrant.

In May, Belczak filed a lawsuit against the city, asking for his assets to be unfrozen because, at that point, he had not been charged with a crime. Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris ruled in Belczak’s favor on Jan. 16, but the federal government obtained its own warrant that day, keeping the assets frozen.

Belczak’s attorney, William Hosler, said he planned to file a federal lawsuit regarding that issue. Hosler is not representing Belczak in the case involving the indictment.

The Archdiocese of Detroit released a brief statement about the case.

“In January 2013, the Detroit Archdiocese announced that it had turned over its internal audit findings from St. Thomas More Parish in Troy to civil authorities because of what appeared to be serious financial discrepancies involving the pastor and his lead office assistant,” the statement reads.

“The federal criminal charges filed today would indicate the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit now believes there is a case to be prosecuted against (Belczak and Verschuren). Both individuals have not served at the parish in over a year. The archdiocese will continue to cooperate with authorities as this matter moves through the courts. As such, there is nothing more the archdiocese can or will say at this stage in the proceedings.”

Belczak, ordained in 1972, served as associate pastor of National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak and Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Farmington before joining St. Thomas More in 1984.