Priest from Troy's St. Thomas More set to plead guilty to fraud

Macomb Daily
August 25, 2015

http://www.macombdaily.com/general-news/20150825/priest-from-troys-st-thomas-more-set-to-plead-guilty-to-fraud

A guilty plea appears likely in the case of a Detroit-area Catholic priest accused of conspiring to steal nearly $700,000 from his church.

A court filing shows a change-of-plea hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 1 in Detroit federal court.

The Rev. Edward Belczak is charged with conspiring with a parish administrator to take money from St. Thomas More church in Troy. The indictment says he helped himself to $110,000 from a church account to pay for a Wellington, Florida, condominium.

The government says cash was also missing from special collections on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. The now-former parish administrator, Janice Verschuren, is also charged in the case.

Belczak was removed from St. Thomas More in 2013 after an audit raised questions about parish finances.