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	Man Stole $96,000 from Seminary Gets 2 years probation, must pay $300,000 By Cathleen Falsani and Annie Sweeney Chicago Sun-Times [Chicago IL] October 12, 2006 http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/92881,CST-NWS-church12.article The former comptroller of Chicago's St. Joseph College Seminary pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing $96,000 from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Michael "Dennis" Composto, 66, entered his guilty plea before Cook County Judge Stanley Sachs, ending a two-year investigation into missing funds at the college-level seminary on the Rogers Park campus of Loyola University. Sachs sentenced Composto to two years probation and ordered him to pay $300,000 in restitution to the archdiocese, said Assistant State's Attorney John Mahoney. "It's very sad," Mahoney said. "It was sad for everybody associated with it -- us, his lawyer, him and the archdiocese." In a civil lawsuit filed by the archdiocese in 2004 against Composto, archdiocesan officials alleged that Composto embezzled more than $268,000 from the seminary during 18-months in 2002 and 2003. Mahoney declined to say how much money prosecutors believed Composto embezzled, saying he pleaded guilty only to stealing the $96,000. Owned condo with Bishop In the civil lawsuit, which is ongoing, archdiocesan officials alleged that Composto used embezzled seminary funds to buy books, videos and music for himself, and to pay mortgages on nine properties, including a condominium in Wisconsin that he co-owned with a Chicago auxiliary bishop. On Wednesday, Colleen Dolan, chief spokeswoman for the Chicago archdiocese, said Auxiliary Bishop Jerome Listecki has never been a focus of the archdiocese's embezzlement investigation and that church officials have no reason to suspect the bishop of any wrongdoing. cfalsani@suntimes.com
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