Prosecutors: Woman stole $400,000 from church, diocese using fake invoices

An assistant to the priest in charge of vocations for the Catholic Church on Long Island stole more than $400,000 through fraudulent billing submitted to the Diocese of Rockville Centre and a parish in Nassau County, authorities said Thursday.

Iris Gomez, 39, of East Islip, then used the money to buy a Peloton bike, eat out at fine restaurants, get her nails done and pay school tuition, according to papers filed by county prosecutors in Nassau County District Court.

She carried out the scheme over a more than two-year period by using phony invoices to have the church pay money to a company she created, the papers said.

Gomez was arrested on Wednesday and arraigned in First District Court in Nassau County on Thursday on charges of grand larceny in the second degree and grand larceny in the third degree. An attorney representing her could not be reached immediately.

Gomez allegedly submitted the initial phony invoices when she worked for the Rev. Joseph Fitzgerald while he was serving as the diocese’s main person in charge of recruiting new priests, according to the court documents.

Then, when Fitzgerald was transferred from diocesan headquarters in Rockville Centre to St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford, he brought Gomez with him. Unknown to him, she continued to submit fraudulent invoices on behalf of her consulting firm, the court papers said.

Fitzgerald is a well-known priest in the diocese who competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and for a decade traveled the globe to 50 countries as part of the U.S. national team handball squad. 

Some of the alleged grand larceny also took place when Gomez had Fitzgerald’s successor as head of vocations, the Rev. Sean Magaldi, sign phony invoices, according to authorities.

The diocese said Thursday that a budget review uncovered financial irregularities, and further internal investigations led the parish to contact the Nassau County Police Department.

During the period when Fitzgerald was transitioning to St. Williams, between June and August 2019, there were several items he needed to finalize before moving on, the papers said. Magaldi began assisting him with some of these items.

Gomez allegedly brought them both invoices to sign “with a sense of urgency due to the impending transition,” according to the allegations.

The invoices were for the company Gomez had created, GBL Media and Designs LLC, the papers said. They covered items including booklets, logo redesign, prayer cards and mailings. The priests signed at least three checks for a total of more than $15,000 during this “pressing transition period,” the papers said.

The priests later “realized that the invoices were fabricated,” and that another company was doing the work for the church, the papers said.

When Fitzgerald finally started at St. Williams in August 2019, he brought Gomez with him as the parish’s new communications and evangelization director. Her duties included the oversight and management of vocational materials and assisting a technology upgrade for the parish.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the parish was moving to livestream Masses and other church functions, and was allowing employees to work remotely. Part of Gomez’s duties was to ensure vendors for the technology upgrade were paid on time.

From August 2019 to February 2022, Gomez allegedly submitted to the parish business manager invoices for payment to her company, GBL, telling the manager that Fitzgerald had approved the invoices, the papers said. The manager then issued checks to Gomez and GBL.

Fitzgerald told investigators that he never approved the GBL invoices, because in fact another company was providing the services and being paid. So the parish was being “double billed,” according to the allegations.

Nearly 60 checks for a total of more than $400,000 were issued to GBL from St. Williams parish, the court papers state.

With Joan Gralla