Albany Business Review, NY
July 15 2004

Priest fined on IRS charge for Troy church embezzlement

The former pastor who embezzled from a Troy church was fined $20,000
and sentenced to six months home detention after pleading guilty to a
federal income tax charge.

The Rev. Megerdich Megerdichian, 48, now of Cranston, R.I.,
previously repaid the Troy Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church the
thousands of dollars in church funds he converted to his own use
between 1995 and 1997. He left the church in 1998.

Megerdichian paid the federal Internal Revenue Service $10,293 in
back taxes and penalties. He also was sentenced to three years
probation after entering a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge
Lawrence Kahn in Albany. Steven Tyrrell, assistant U.S. attorney,
prosecuted the case.