The former priest of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Starkville was indicted on multiple charges of wire fraud earlier this year after federal investigators said he defrauded parishioners of more than $18,000, according to court documents which were unsealed Wednesday.
Father Lenin Vargas was indicted on 10 counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Vargas served as pastor at both St. Joseph and Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Macon until the Jackson Diocese removed him from service in December 2018 after he became the subject of a federal investigation. In the three years before he was removed, Vargas “knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud (the parishioners) in order to obtain money from them by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, promises and omissions, through the use of wire communications and interstate and international commerce,” the indictment says.
Specifically, Vargas told parishioners that he had been diagnosed with cancer — he was actually diagnosed with HIV in 2014 — and that he was collecting money to build an orphanage and chapel in Mexico, where he is from. Parishioners donated $18,258.02 total, through writing checks to Vargas or by donating to a GoFundMe account opened in February 2015 to raise money for Vargas’ cancer treatment. In one case, a parishioner donated $2,000 to Vargas after he told her he had the same type of cancer that the parishioner’s husband had died from five years before.
Vargas used the money for personal expenses, including sending some of it to a friend, Sergio Picon, who was involved with Vargas in business ventures in Mexico, the court documents say.
The indictment also said Diocesan staff, including Bishop Joseph Kopacz, knew Vargas had HIV instead of cancer as early as March 2015 and that they sent him to a 14-week mental health treatment program in Canada. All Vargas’ expenses for being treated for HIV were covered by health insurance, according to the indictment.
Federal prosecutors previously said Vargas used some of the money on a dating website that caters to people who are HIV-positive, according to previous reporting by The Dispatch.
The Diocese of Jackson issued a press release Wednesday announcing the Diocese entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors to “tighten financial controls” in the Diocese’s accounting offices, which will include returning the parishioners’ donations.
“There are still steps to be taken and certainly more changes ahead,” Kopacz said in the release. “As part of an agreed upon resolution of the federal investigation, the Diocese will welcome periodic review and oversight of its financial and management practices and protocols. As a result of the many steps we have already taken to tighten our internal controls, we are very comfortable with this resolution.
“We still invite anyone to come forward with claims, and we will work to seek a just resolution with them,” he added. “We hope in Christ for new life and peace.”
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