The bishop of a Chaldean Catholic church in El Cajon was arrested while trying to leave the country Thursday and jailed on suspicion of embezzlement, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said.
The arrest of Bishop Emanuel Shaleta of the Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle comes more than two weeks after news surfaced alleging money was missing from the church and that the Vatican was investigating. The bishop denied the allegations.
Deputies detained Shaleta, 69, at San Diego International Airport as he was “attempting to leave the country,” the department said in a news release Thursday.
Shaleta was arrested on suspicion of eight counts each of embezzlement and money laundering, and also an enhancement alleging aggravated white collar crime. He was jailed in lieu of $125,000.
The bishop was still in the process of being booked into jail Thursday evening, and no further information was immediately available.
Earlier this week, The Pillar, an investigative news outlet covering the Catholic Church, reported that Shaleta was expected to travel to Rome this week as the Vatican weighed his future.
On Feb. 19, the outlet was the first to report that the Vatican had ordered an investigation into Shaleta and alleged more than $427,000 in cash had been “appropriated.”
The Sheriff’s Office acknowledged an investigation when the Union-Tribune asked about the news report late last month but declined to provide additional information.
On Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office said that a representative of the local church had contacted detectives Aug. 19 and provided a statement and documents “showing potential embezzlement from the church.” The case was subsequently investigated by the sheriff’s Fraud Unit.
The department did not say how much money it suspects was taken, nor when the alleged embezzlements occurred.
During a Mass late last month, Sheleta adamantly denied wrongdoing.
“I have never in my priestly life or episcopal life abused any penny of the church money,” Shaleta said, according to a recording of the service, which was streamed on YouTube. “On the contrary, I have done my best to preserve and manage the donations of the church properly.”
Shaleta told the congregation that a donor had given him money to distribute to poor people, and that he had done so. He said a member of the church finance committee reported missing money to the Vatican — money the bishop indicated were the funds donated to help poor people.
The bishop said he lives in a small room, works in a small office and has a small car. “I think there is a mean and vicious media campaign funded by very rich people against the Chaldean Church and its clergy,” he said, and he told parishioners to ask for a copy of the financial report.
The Pillar news story also cited a report submitted to the Dicastery for Eastern Catholic Churches by a San Diego-based private investigator and former FBI agent who reported seeing the bishop making late-night border crossings into Mexico, parking in a lot reserved for customers of a brothel, then boarding a shuttle exclusive to customers of the brothel. Shaleta did not address those allegations in his Feb. 22 public address.