White Plains friar used donations to fake charity on gym membership, plastic surgery: Feds

A Catholic friar with a White Plains-based order raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a fake charitable enterprise and spent much of the money on personal expenses, such as luxury gym memberships, trips to the Hamptons, plastic surgery and meals at high-end restaurants, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a newly unsealed criminal complaint Monday.

Pawel Bielecki, 48, is a friar with the Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order, which is headquartered in White Plains. The friars take a vow of poverty and are severely limited in the amount of personal assets they are allowed to maintain. But according to the Department of Justice, Bielecki concocted a wide-ranging scheme to raise money for medical services in Beirut, Lebanon, and withdrew the funds for his personal use.

Bielecki solicited and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from crowdfunding websites, radio appearances and other public solicitations, the Department of Justice's complaint alleged. The purported reason for the fundraising was to support medical clinics Bielecki runs in Beirut ‒ for the purchase of medicine, medical equipment, baby incubators, food and an ambulance.

However, Bielecki's clinics "do not exist," said Sean Smyth, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

"I believe that Bielecki was present in New York on specific dates when he claimed, in his radio appearances and in other electronic communications, to be in Lebanon on behalf of his purported medical clinics," Smyth wrote.

According to the complaint, Bielecki raised at least $78,000 through various crowdfunding websites and more than $230,000 through direct contributions.

Since 2017, he had withdrawn $50,000 in cash and used more than $600,000 from his bank account to pay down personal expenses on his credits cards, the complaint alleges.

Some of these expenses included, according to the complaint, a $334-per-month gym membership fee, trips to the Hamptons and meals at high-end restaurants.

On one occasion in January 2022, the complaint says, Bielecki received $10,000 from a Pennsylvania woman, who believed the money was going to pay for expenses associated with running an ambulance.

The woman thanked him for ensuring that "the many prayers for an ambulance were answered."

Around two weeks later, Bielecki attended a "Body Contouring Examination" at a liposuction clinic, the complaint alleges, and scheduled a $15,000 procedure.

Smyth also says that Bielecki adopted multiple false aliases and made up information about his background, including claims that he was a researcher for the United Nations and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a component of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Bielecki could not be reached for comment. He was charged with wire fraud and mail fraud and is currently being held at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn.

The Capuchin Franciscans of the Province of St. Mary strive to live the Gospel in the spirt of St. Francis of Assisi, according to their website. "Through their dedication to serving those in need, through their living simply as a fraternity of brothers and through their lives of prayer they seek to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth," it says.

The Friars of the Province of St. Mary serve in parishes and other ministerial sites across New York state and New England.

Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can send him an email at astockler@lohud.com . Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com .

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: White Plains friar used donations to fake charity on gym membership, plastic surgery: Feds