LANSING (MI)
WDIV-TV, NBC-4, Click on Detroit [Detroit MI]
March 18, 2024
By Dane Kelly
Will also have to pay restitution to victims’ families
A Michigan priest was sentenced to four to 20 years incarceration Monday, March 18.
A jury in Clinton County returned guilty verdicts on the charges against David Rosenberg, 72, of DeWitt, for embezzling or stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from retired priests. He was originally charged in Dec. 2022.
Rosenberg will also have to pay restitution to the victims’ families.
According to authorities, Rosenberg was employed as Director of the Lansing Catholic Diocese’s St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt between 2015 and 2021. He embezzled or stole approximately $780,000 from three priests and gave the stolen funds to his charitable foundation, FaithFirst, formerly the Rosenberg Family Corporation. The 95-acre Retreat Center property includes apartments that house retired priests. The three victims resided at the Retreat Center apartments until their deaths.
In February, he was convicted of three counts of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult $100,000 or more, one count of false pretenses $100,000 or more, one count of false pretenses $20,000-$50,000, one count of perjury, one count of uttering and publishing and one count of larceny $20,000 or more.
The final amount of ordered restitution has not yet been set by the Court and may be further negotiated by the impacted parties.