{"id":209361,"date":"2026-03-07T19:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209361\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T19:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T19:19:16","slug":"chaldean-bishop-arrested-in-san-diego-on-embezzlement-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209361\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaldean bishop arrested in San Diego on embezzlement charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chaldean Catholic bishop has been arrested in San Diego and charged with embezzling Church funds.<\/p>\n

The San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office said Bishop Emanuel Shaleta was arrested on March 5 at San Diego International Airport as the prelate was \u201cattempting to leave the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office said in a press release<\/a> that the bishop was charged with multiple counts of embezzlement and money laundering as well as one count of \u201caggravated white collar crime enhancement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Records show Shaleta is being held on $125,000 bail on one of the embezzlement charges. All charges against the bishop are listed as felonies by the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

\"Cloudinary<\/p>\n

Charging information against Bishop Emmanuel Shaleta. | Credit: San Diego Sheriff\u2019s Office website<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office said it had been contacted in August 2025 by a representative of St. Peter Chaldean Cathedral in El Cajon, California. The church member \u201cprovided a statement and documents showing potential embezzlement from the church,\u201d which was then investigated by the sheriff\u2019s fraud unit. <\/p>\n

In remarks at a Mass on Feb. 22,<\/a> Shaleta denied allegations he said were circulating on social media, describing them as a \u201cmean and vicious media campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never in my priestly life or episcopal life abused any penny of the Church money,\u201d the prelate said. \u201cOn the contrary, I have done my best to preserve and manage the donations of the Church properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaleta said that when confronted by a parishioner about allegedly missing money, he responded that he \u201cgave it to the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parishioner allegedly \u201cgathered paperwork from the Church files without my [consent] and sent them to Rome,\u201d the bishop said, adding that the Vatican \u201cdid an investigation about me without even notifying me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaleta has served at the San Diego Chaldean eparch since 2017. He was born in Iraq.<\/p>\n

St. Peter Chaldean Cathedral and the eparchy did not immediately respond to requests for comment on March 6. <\/p>\n

Update: This story was updated on March 6, 2026, with remarks Bishop Shaleta made at a liturgy on Feb. 22. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Chaldean Catholic bishop has been arrested in San Diego and charged with embezzling Church funds. The San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[18223,96406,723,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-209361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-catholic-news","tag-chaldean-catholic-church","tag-crime","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}