Former Wardsville priest under FBI investigation for embezzlement

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Jefferson City Diocese priest is heading to a church trial and being investigated by the FBI for allegedly mismanaging money at a Wardsville church, the diocese said in a statement Sunday.

The church trial has been suspended because of an ongoing FBI investigation, according to the statement. Father Ignazio Medina, who retired July 1, is being investigated for his actions while he was pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish from 2012 to 2021.

Medina is accused of taking more than $300,000 from the diocese from accounts at Stanislaus. Medina went to the Our Lady of the Lake Parish in 2021 and an official at the Stanislaus parish office found a previously undisclosed bank account that had been closed in June 2021, according to the diocese statement.

Medina told church officials that he closed the account before the move and gave them access to the bank records, the statement says. The church said Medina had written a check to himself for $200,000 and one to an out-of-state sibling for $100,000 from the account. Church leaders alerted law enforcement, leading to an FBI investigation.

Bishop Shawn McKnight put in temporary financial safeguards at the lake parish after those revelations, the diocese said. The church also hired an independent auditing firm, which discovered about $20,000 in unsubstantiated cash withdrawals from St. Stanislaus, but no discrepancies at the lake parish.

Medina gave the church three cashier's checks for $320,000 total -- two in January and one in June, according to the diocese statement.