A former New Jersey Catholic church employee was charged with stealing more than $500,000 from the parish to fund a lavish lifestyle that included designer clothes, a luxury vehicle and tickets to Yankees games, officials said Friday.
Joseph A. Manzi, 78, of Atlantic Highlands, served as the director of finance, operations and development for the Church of Saint Leo the Great in Lincroft for over a decade, until his firing in June of this year.
About a month after his dismissal, an auditor discovered financial irregularities in the parish accounts, according to a civil lawsuit filed by the Diocese of Trenton.
In the complaint, filed Aug. 8 in Monmouth County Superior Court, parish attorneys accused Manzi of “systematically, secretly and dishonestly utilizing parish funds for his own personal benefit.”
On Friday, the state attorney general’s office and the Division of Criminal Justice said that after reviewing St. Leo’s financial records, prosecutors charged Manzi with theft by unlawful taking for allegedly using church funds for personal expenses.
“The defendant is alleged to have used his position of trust to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church,” Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a press release. “As described in the complaint, this conduct was not to feed his family or for some kind of emergency, but to live a more lavish lifestyle.”
Manzi, who at the time had sole control of the church’s credit cards, is accused of fraudulently using them to make unauthorized purchases and payments totaling more than $300,000, investigators said.
That included chartering fishing trips, buying luxury clothing and a Cadillac SUV, paying for home repairs and services, and buying tickets to sporting events, including Yankees games.
Additionally, he “diverted over $200,000 in cash from St. Leo for his personal benefit from January 11, 2019, through May 7, 2025,” prosecutors said.
“Members of the church who donated their hard-earned funds for the good of their parish should know that their contributions will be used for their intended purposes,” said DCJ director Theresa L. Hilton. “Instead, this defendant allegedly enriched himself with church funds. He now faces criminal charges for his actions.”
If convicted, Manzi faces five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000.
