PHILADELPHIA — A finance executive who linked her $900,000 embezzlement from the Philadelphia archdiocese to the church’s sex-abuse scandal was sentenced Friday to two to seven years in prison.
Anita Guzzardi, 42, said she gave in to gambling and shopping addictions after feeling betrayed by the church about the priest sex-abuse scandal.
Guzzardi had worked at the Roman Catholic archdiocese since she was 20, and made $124,000 a year as chief financial officer.
No wonder the church is broke.
‘‘She felt betrayed by the institution,’’ her lawyer Louis R. Busico told a judge.
A prosecutor countered that Guzzardi partied “for seven years on somebody else’s dime,’’ despite the fact she and her husband had combined incomes of more than $300,000 and no children.
Guzzardi took relatives on trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and San Francisco, and spent lavishly on herself and others, Assistant District Attorney Lisa Caulfield said. She spent heavily on spas, restaurant meals, and flowers, and made extra mortgage payments on the couple’s $425,000 home in Haddon Heights, N.J.
‘‘When you steal money and you don’t need it, that is pure greed,’’ Caulfield said. ‘‘[It] was spent on ridiculous luxuries that many parishioners may only dream about.’’
American Express caught the scam when it questioned use of church checks for monthly bills that sometimes topped $29,000.
Guzzardi repaid $260,000.
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Anita Guzzardi, 42, said she gave in to gambling and shopping addictions after feeling betrayed by the church about the priest sex-abuse scandal.
Guzzardi had worked at the Roman Catholic archdiocese since she was 20, and made $124,000 a year as chief financial officer.
No wonder the church is broke.
‘‘She felt betrayed by the institution,’’ her lawyer Louis R. Busico told a judge.
A prosecutor countered that Guzzardi partied “for seven years on somebody else’s dime,’’ despite the fact she and her husband had combined incomes of more than $300,000 and no children.
Guzzardi took relatives on trips to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and San Francisco, and spent lavishly on herself and others, Assistant District Attorney Lisa Caulfield said. She spent heavily on spas, restaurant meals, and flowers, and made extra mortgage payments on the couple’s $425,000 home in Haddon Heights, N.J.
‘‘When you steal money and you don’t need it, that is pure greed,’’ Caulfield said. ‘‘[It] was spent on ridiculous luxuries that many parishioners may only dream about.’’
American Express caught the scam when it questioned use of church checks for monthly bills that sometimes topped $29,000.
Guzzardi repaid $260,000.
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