Lawsuits launched after tsunami fraud: CEN 10.30.09 p 8. November 4, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.trackback
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) of the American Episcopal Church has filed suit against the Church of South India (CSI) to recover £1 million allegedly stolen by its former General Secretary Dr Pauline Sathiamurthy. Detectives from the Central Crime Branch of the Madras police arrested Dr Sathiamurthy and three members of her family on Oct 13, after the church turned over the results of an internal investigation to prosecutors. |
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In a statement released on Oct 23, ERD said that two years ago it had “approached the local Church authorities with concerns when CSI failed to complete the financial reporting and required audits outlined in our agreement for 2005 and 2006. As a result, we suspended work with CSI and implemented an in-depth effort to account for the missing funds. After a lengthy process, we deeply regret that we have been forced to take legal action.”
“While this situation is highly unusual,” it said, “we strive to honour our commitment to the people we serve around the world and the generosity of our faithful donors.”
The funds sent to the CSI were “only a portion of our tsunami response work,” ERD added, noting that “as per standard plans and procedures, clean audits were completed with our church partners in both North India and Sri Lanka.”
However, “as this is a legal matter, we cannot comment further about the current situation. We have faith in the Indian judicial system and believe this case will be handled fairly,” ERD said.
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