Philadelphia, Pa., Mar 14, 2012 / 23:41 pm
The former chief financial officer of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has turned herself in to the Philadelphia district attorney to face several charges related to the theft of almost one million dollars from the archdiocese.
The archdiocese said it has worked closely with the D.A. during the investigation of the alleged crime.
Guzzardi, 42, allegedly stole the money from the archdiocese from 2005 until 2011 while in lower level positions. The Philadelphia district attorney’s office said she used 184 archdiocesan checks to pay her American Express bills. She also was found to have paid her personal Chase credit card with archdiocesan funds, using 146 checks for that account.
She was named chief financial officer on July 1, 2011. On July 13, the district attorney’s office alerted the archdiocese to accounting irregularities reported by a credit card company. She was placed on leave July 14 and fired on July 22 after the archdiocese’s preliminary forensic accounting investigation, the archdiocese said.