Pocono News Section

Scranton Diocese Approached By International Scam Artist

Scranton Diocese Approached By International Scam Artist - Monday, July 28, 2008 at 10:51PM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Monday, Jul 28, 2008 @ 10:51pm EST

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- The I-Team Monday was tipped off to allegations suspected international scammer and self-described Vatican Chief Financial Officer Raffeallo Follieri contacted Scranton Diocesan leaders two years ago about purchasing property.

Follieri was arrested last month, served with a list of charges suggesting he schemed millions of dollars from investors who bought into claims he was in the business of rehabbing vacant church buildings. He's being held on $21 million in a Manhattan slammer, a place starkly different from his former Trump Tower $37 thousand-a-month apartment. Agents claim Follieri duped his investors, bankrolling his inflated lifestyle.

A criminal complaint recently unsealed in a Southern District of New York courtroom shows the ex-boyfriend of Hollywood beauty queen Ann Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) parlayed casual acquaintances with priests as bona fide ties to the Vatican, purportedly allowing him access to U. S. church holdings for purchase below market value.

A Scranton Diocese spokesman confirms the chancellor and other members of the local church had been contacted by Follieri in Fall 2006 about a vacant church and school in the diocese. The church wouldn't comment on the locations of the properties. We're told negotiations cooled after they appeared to be "going no where." Spokesman William Genello said Follieri's group was "difficult to deal with." He wouldn't comment further.

It's reported Follieri exploited the Roman Catholic church for his own personal gain, using the crisis of closing churches as a front for extortion. The FBI probe was triggered by an anonymous investor's deman in Follieri's group to see an audit of the books.