Stanisław K., retired parish priest in Domostawa (Podkarpackie Province), was sentenced to one year of suspended imprisonment for misappropriating PLN 434,000 from the parish account. He is also required to repair the damage caused.
The verdict in the case of the 72-year-old priest was issued on Friday by the District Court in Tarnobrzeg. It is not final.
As reported by prosecutor Andrzej Dubiel, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Tarnobrzeg, which accused the priest, Stanisław K., in addition to the suspended sentence, was also ordered by the court to repair the damage, i.e. return the misappropriated amount to the parish. He must also pay a fine.
Prosecutor Dubiel added that the prosecutor has not yet decided whether to appeal the verdict. If he does, he will ask the court for a written justification of the verdict.
The prosecutor’s office requested two years of unconditional imprisonment for Stanisław K.
Million-dollar transfers from the parish account
The matter of money misappropriated from the parish account came to light in August 2022, when someone posted a scan of a bank printout on social media indicating that on July 5 of this year, two transfers of one million zlotys each were made from the account of the parish of Our Lady Queen of Poland in Domostawa to the private account of the parish priest, Father Stanisław K.
After the case was revealed, the Bishop of Sandomierz initiated an internal investigation and notified the prosecutor's office about the suspicion of committing a crime of misappropriation of parish money by the parish priest. Stanisław K. defended himself by claiming that it was his private money, which he had previously transferred to the parish account to buy bonds.
At the same time, Fr. Stanisław K., then still a parish priest in Domostawa, filed a report of suspicion of committing a crime of unlawfully gaining access to his bank account. However, this case was ultimately dismissed because the priest did not file a motion for prosecution.
He wanted to buy bonds.
In September 2022, Father Stanisław K. passed to retirement after 42 years of pastoral service, mainly in Domostawa, where he had been parish priest since 1985.
During the investigation, it turned out that on June 14 and 15, 2022, the parish priest, Fr. Stanisław K., transferred two million zlotys from his private account to the parish account. He explained that he intended to buy bonds, but when it turned out that it was impossible, on July 5, he transferred the money back from the parish account to his own. And it was the scan of this transfer that was revealed on social media.
The investigation also showed that for many years when Father Stanisław K. performed pastoral ministry in Domostawa, money was constantly transferred back and forth between the parish account and the priest’s private account.
The investigation also revealed the crime of misappropriation of over PLN 434,000. It took place in 2020. This is a case from October and November 2020, when GDDKiA The Rzeszów branch transferred a total of over PLN 448,000 to the account of the parish in Domostawa as compensation for the expropriation of real estate belonging to the parish for the construction of the S19 expressway. Parish priest Stanisław K. paid a 7% tax to the Sandomierz Diocese, but kept the rest of the amount, PLN 434,000, for himself.
He did not confess
According to the prosecutor's office, after the scandal involving the transfer of two million zlotys broke out, Father Stanisław K. tried to erase traces of that transaction in the parish's financial documentation.
Ultimately, the former parish priest was accused of misappropriating PLN 434,000.
The accused did not admit guilt either during the investigation or in court. He claimed that this amount was a small compensation for the fact that for many years he had been transferring his private money, among other things, to parish investments. However, he was unable to provide evidence for this.
Investigators determined that the parish priest had been generating considerable income over the years, for example from the sale of securities.
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