NEW HAVEN - A Greenwich priest failed to account for more than $400,000 in church funds he kept in secret accounts and engaged in a pattern of deception when confronted, an investigation by church officials concluded yesterday.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport said it has provided its findings to federal authorities after investigating the Rev. Michael Moynihan. He resigned last year as pastor of St. Michael Church in Greenwich and was stripped of his priestly authority last month after he was found living with another man.
The FBI had contacted church officials about the secret accounts, the diocese said.
"We regret that, after more than a year of reviewing financial records and discussing these records with Father Moynihan and his counsel, as well as giving Father Moynihan every opportunity to substantiate his claims that all the expenditures were for legitimate parish or school purposes, we can only conclude that Father Moynihan has engaged in a pattern of self-dealing, deceit, and submitting falsified and misleading documents to the substantial detriment of our parish," an audit committee told parishioners in a letter.
The US attorney's office declined to comment. An FBI spokeswoman said the agency was aware that the matter had been referred to the bureau, but declined to comment further.
Telephone messages were left yesterday with Moynihan's lawyer, Jack Schmeltzer, and at his former job as a volunteer chaplain at the State University of New York Maritime College in New York.
The report by two public accounting firms, covering the period from 2003 to July 2006, found more than $400,000 that either went to pay Moynihan's personal credit card bills or expenses that were not documented as legitimate.
That money was part of $2.1 million in expenditures from two off-the-books accounts, but the rest of the money went to documented legitimate expenses or expenses that appeared to be appropriate, the report found.
The report offers few details on how Moynihan might have spent church money, but does cite $58,000 used to buy a boat, as well as restaurant and travel expenses and a livery service.
