From a contributor:
The lawyer of Atlantic City's Monsignor Hodge has been hitting the newspapers recently with the sad story that the good monsignor is yet another victim of growing Follieri/Galante Vati-Con scandal. Italian playboy and real estate developer Raffaello Follieri plead guilty last month to multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering and is looking a potential 65 years in prison for duping investors out of millions of dollars. He had convinced them that his insider connections gave him the ability to buy up hundreds of church properties from Catholic bishops at below-market rates and flip them for profit.
The lawyer of Atlantic City's Monsignor Hodge has been hitting the newspapers recently with the sad story that the good monsignor is yet another victim of growing Follieri/Galante Vati-Con scandal. Italian playboy and real estate developer Raffaello Follieri plead guilty last month to multiple counts of wire fraud and money laundering and is looking a potential 65 years in prison for duping investors out of millions of dollars. He had convinced them that his insider connections gave him the ability to buy up hundreds of church properties from Catholic bishops at below-market rates and flip them for profit.
FBI documents claimed Monsignor Hodge traveled extensively with Follieri on his meetings with investors but Hodge's lawyer has been telling everyone that Hodge is actually just another victim himself. From an AP story that's made the rounds:
He told them that Follieri duped him out of $110,000 left to him by his parents. He say the Italian businessman claimed he needed the money to pay nuns.
Here at Savestmary's we initially missed it when Hodge gave the Press of Atlantic City a different story:
Hodge met Follieri in 2005, when he was looking into church properties in Atlantic City, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. The two became close and took three trips to Rome together. Hodge said Follieri bilked him out of $120,000 for plane tickets and other bogus expenses.
No nuns? Plane tickets to Italy?
Is it common for a self-described "simple parish priest" in the Diocese of Camden to loan or donate six-figure sums to real estate developers looking to buy church property? It's worth noting that at the same time Monsignor Hodge was giving $120,000 to his "close" friend Raffaello, the developer was overspending somewhere around this same amount (if real estate pricing guides are an indication) for the personal property of Hodge's boss, Bishop Joseph Galante. As far as we know, these Italian getaways were on Diocesan time. The New York Daily News reported Hodge openly talked about his travels with colleagues.
We're not seeing many nuns benefiting from this money round-robin.
Generally when someone gives a real estate developer $120,000 we call it an investment. When they start making frequent trips with the developer to convince investors we call it a partnership. And when a real estate developer hands a $400,000 check to the head of an multi-million dollar organization from which he seeks to buy property, it's called a... well, you decide what it's called.
Hodge was out of the country on another European jaunt when FBI agents arrested Follieri in New York this summer, but he's been back long enough to make the news in another context. A few weeks ago he appeared in an Atlantic City courtroom to testify in support of another real estate friend heading to jail. On September 5th, U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler convicted Atlantic City developer Frank A Barbera on a 2006 bribe of an Atlantic City councilman in return for favorable treatment on the planned sale of city owned property:
Barbera was joined Friday by a host of supportive family members and friends. Some spoke on his behalf, including Formica's Bakery owner Harry Formica and Barbera's pastor, Monsignor William Hodge.
Yes that's right: three weeks ago Hodge publicly spoke on behalf of a disgraced real estate investor caught slipping money to the decision-maker of a multi-million dollar institution with assets to sell. And last week Hodge admitted giving $120,000 to a disgraced real estate developer who bought a pricey condo from his boss, a decision-maker of a multi-million dollar institution with assets to sell.
And not a nun to be seen in that friendship either.
Back in July Diocesan Spokesman Andrew Walton told papers that Monsignor William Hodge had taken "no salary, no remuneration or employment from Mr. Follieri." So then when did they learn that the "simple parish priest" was actually footing the con man's business trips? And just what do they think of his habit of befriending future real estate felons? Or do they think this is just another "nonstory"?