New York pastor accused of cashing dead teacher's pension checks

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/14/us-crime-pastor-idUSTRE79D0F520111014 ^ | 10/24/2011 | Reuters

[Morgana]

(Reuters) - A New York pastor has been arrested and accused of fraudulently cashing pension checks worth nearly a quarter-million dollars sent to a school teacher who died more than a decade ago, authorities said on Thursday.

Rev. Victor Rosa was accused of deceiving New York City's Teacher Retirement System into thinking that teacher Maria Sicardo was still alive and had her checks sent to a building he owns in the Bronx, investigators said.

He would cash the checks, which amounted to about $241,000, often at a local bank, investigators said. Investigators said they interviewed bank staff, who recalled Rosa often preached about God to other customers while waiting in line.

Sicardo died in April 2000 at age 75.

A report by the New York City's Department of Investigation said in the years after her death, someone sent fraudulently notarized documents to the Teacher Retirement System, purportedly signed by Sicardo, affirming that she was still alive.

[WayneS]

New York pastor accused of cashing dead teacher's pension checks

How else was he supposed to do it? If he had tried to cash them while she was still alive she almost SURELY would have complained.

[tflabo]

No separation of church and state pension fund here.

[2banana]

Seems to be a trend.

See the people who kept mentally retarded people and children locked in a basement to collect their SS checks (in Philly).

In 2banana’s world -

You would need to show up in person and with ID to get your check every month.

[GeronL]

I bet that dead teacher is still a regular voter too

[Talisker]

How else was he supposed to do it? If he had tried to cash them while she was still alive she almost SURELY would have complained.

Who said anyone would have listened. Even then, he could have just sat on the checks so she couldn't get them while she was alive, and then only started cashing them when she died.

Since the Clintons got in, no depth of depravity has been too low. And the truly sorrowful thing is how many people gladly followed their lead. Makes mercy damn hard to apply - if not impossible. And to think, most people justify it by claiming to keep their families "safe" - as they literally build the hell of the future.

[GeronL]

I agree, welfare should be that way too

[Verginius Rufus]

The story doesn’t say what denomination he is affiliated with. That probably means he isn’t a Catholic priest (because that would have been mentioned right away—just like when a news report on a politician accused of corruption doesn’t prominently mention the party affiliation, you know he’s a Democrat). Looks like the guy ran a food pantry—so he wasn’t really robbing, he was Robin Hood. Or Petirrojo Capucha, since he’s Hispanic.