The Chaldean Catholic bishop arrested last week at San Diego International Airport as he was about to leave the country is due in court on Monday.
After a months-long investigation by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Fraud Unit, Bishop Emanuel Shaleta, 60, of Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego was taken into custody by San Diego sheriff’s deputies, who said at the time that he faces eight counts of embezzlement, eight counts of money laundering, and an enhancement of “aggravated white collar crime.”
Shaleta, who has professed his innocence from the pulpit, is expected to be arraigned Monday afternoon at the courthouse in El Cajon.
Investigators also said on Thursday that the case began when the sheriff’s office was contacted last August by somebody from the St. Peter Chaldean Church in unincorporated El Cajon. The church official gave investigators a “statement and documents showing potential embezzlement from the church. Upon completion of the initial investigation, the case was forwarded to and investigated by the sheriff’s fraud unit.”…