Denver, Colo., Sep 2, 2009 / 21:38 pm
A former employee of the Archdiocese of Denver has been charged with stealing the identities of nuns and defrauding a charitable foundation of $391,000. She allegedly provided checks from the fund to friends and relatives.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office charged Ruth Gonzales, 58, with two counts of theft and one count of identity theft.
Gonzales, the recent construction director of the Catholic Charities affiliate Archdiocesan Housing, is accused of submitting fraudulent requests to The Denver Foundation’s “Concern for Others” program.
Court papers said that the bank that administered the program grew suspicious in March after noticing that Gonzales’ daughter-in-law often accompanied people who were at the bank with checks from the fund, the Denver Post reports.