Episcopal Priest’s Lavish Lifestyle Under Scrutiny

That a ‘Christian’ church leader sees nothing wrong with this kind of  lifestyle says much of the state of the modern apostate church. How on earth was this guy passed in the first place for ordination?! It is not just  his lavish spending that is at issue here!

“Episcopal priest makes a name for himself in New York City nightclubs

Article by SEAN EVANS and TRACY CONNOR from here,  December 28th 2008

He shows up at the hottest clubs in the wee hours and spends thousands on top-shelf liquors, doling out five-figure tips like silver dollars.

He’ll send bottles of Dom Perignon to tables around him on a whim, or take a waitress out on the town for a shopping spree.

His name isn’t Diddy. He doesn’t show up in the gossip columns or the Fortune 500. He’s not even a celebrity at all.

The mystery man whose bottomless pockets have made him a legend in clubland is a young Episcopal priest from northeastern Pennsylvania.

“I work hard. I make good money. How I spend it – that is my business,” the Rev. Gregory Malia, 43, told the Daily News. “I haven’t done anything inappropriate.”

There’s no suggestion that Malia – a hemophiliac who owns a specialty pharmacy dedicated to blood disorders – has done anything wrong on his visits to the city.

Still, the clergyman’s free-spending ways boggle the mind, even at Manhattan hot spots where staffers are used to seeing hundreds thrown down.

“All the waitresses in the clubs know who he is and smile and scream, ‘Father Greg!’ when he walks in the door because he’s such a good tipper,” one club waitress said. “He’ll overtip … on top of an automatic 20% gratuity.”

Pink Elephant on W. 27th St. is a favorite haunt, but he also has spread the wealth at the Flatiron lounge Citrine and other pricey party spots.

He shows up late – after all, it’s a long drive from Wilkes Barre, Pa. – usually alone or with a business client, tipsters say.

Despite his notoriety, he keeps an oddly low profile, club workers say.

“He’s more than likely to spend money when the club is not packed. If it’s packed, he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t want to draw attention,” a nightlife manager told The News.

On other nights, it seems, the sky’s the limit.

One time, Malia – a divorced father of two – visited one downtown club and bought the most expensive bottle on the menu, which goes for $35,000.

“The included tip was $7,000 and he tipped an extra $10,000,” a staffer said. “A bad night for him is $5,000.”

Asked about that night, Malia said he didn’t think he’d paid that much for the bottle but wasn’t sure. As for the tip, he said, “When people are nice to me, I take care of them.”

During a brief interview cut short by his company’s publicist, Malia refused to say how he has made so much money or divulge much about his life.

Newsletters from the Episcopal Church show Malia became a deacon in 2001 and was ordained a priest in 2002.

He was an assistant vicar at Trinity Church in West Pittston before getting his own summers-only parish, St. James, in Carbondale.

Malia launched his company, New Life Home Care, based in Pittston, Pa., in 2000. It’s one of a handful of pharmacies for hemophiliacs.

He also provides “pastoral care” to clients and says in company literature that because he suffers from hemophilia he “can relate to the challenges on a very personal level.”

New Life has spawned several legal battles. In 2003, he sued a rival for slander, claiming she was spreading misinformation about him at a trade fair.

In 2006, he sued Blue Cross after it terminated his employees’ insurance policy. Blue Cross also has sued Malia, claiming it was overbilled for medicine used by Malia and his employees.

He sued Express Scripts, a company that manages insurance benefits, alleging it wrongly withheld $1.6 million in insurance payments because of the overbilling dispute.

Malia said he entertains clients in Manhattan, but “most of my business isn’t in the clubs.”

“With my health condition, it’s a blessing and a curse; [but] I do like to go out,” he said.

“It’s my own money,” he said, adding that he gives plenty of cash to charity.

His secretary, Marge Falzone, said she knew nothing about her boss’ “financial circumstances” except that he is generous.

“If a child has hemophilia and has no insurance, he gives [the medication] free of charge,” she said. “He does a lot of pro bono work.”

His largesse clearly extends beyond the hemophilia community. Malia acknowledged he’ll buy bottles of Dom Perignon for other clubgoers.

“He hangs out with waitresses, and sometimes comes back after a big night and takes the waitresses shopping,” said one nightlife insider. “The girls die for a client like that. If they get someone like Father Greg, they know they’re going to have a good night.”

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Update

Church boots club-hopping priest, Rev. Gregory Malia, from post in Pa. hamlet Carbondale from here 

BY SEAN EVANS, DOUGLAS FEIDEN and TRACY CONNOR, 30th Dec 2008 

The big-spending, champagne-swilling, club-hopping priest from Pennsylvania is out of a job.

The Rev. Gregory Malia has been suspended as vicar of his parish and relieved of his priestly duties after “shocked” church elders learned about his extravagant escapades at city hot spots from the Daily News.

His bishop said Tuesday that Malia, 43, could be permanently defrocked if an internal investigation or trial confirms he violated his vows behind the velvet rope.

“What Father Malia is reported to have spent on a single evening would build and equip an African school or totally underwrite the homeless shelter we are building in Scranton,” said the Right Rev. Paul Marshall, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

“This is the technical meaning of ’scandal.’”

Malia, who was ordained in 2001, said he hasn’t done anything wrong and can prove it to church investigators.

“I’m sure once they have all the facts I’ll be exonerated,” he said in a phone interview from Florida with his lawyer and publicist listening in.

“I don’t agree I lead a lavish lifestyle,” said Malia, whose company car is a $75,000 Jaguar.

“I’m a national businessperson dealing with very chronic and severe illnesses that cost huge amounts of money,” he said.

“I’m not running a mom-and-pop store,” he added with indignation.

As The News revealed Sunday, Malia is legend in clubland, where staffers report that he routinely drops tens of thousands of dollars in a single night.

He’s known to buy magnums of Dom Perignon, which cost as much as $25,000. One night in Chelsea, he treated 10 tables around him to champagne, a source said. The tab: $10,000.

“Everybody smiles when he walks in the door because in walks six figures,” one club impresario said.

The party-hearty priest – who does not draw a church salary as vicar of a part-time parish in Dundaff – said the reports were “exaggerated.”

He suggested his club jaunts were for charity and his business, a pharmacy that specializes in medicine for hemophiliacs like himself.

“There’s a lot of fund-raisers that work in and around the nightclubs,” he said, declining to explain further.

Malia launched New Life Home Care in 2000. He would not discuss the company’s finances.

The company is embroiled in a $3.6 million lawsuit with Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania over billing practices.

The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office investigated new Life last fall but found no wrongdoing, a law enforcement source said.

The source said investigators plan to take a second look, but a spokesman for the office said he could not “confirm nor deny” any probe. Malia said he “absolutely” welcomes any investigation.

Malia’s parish, St. James, is a summer chapel open only 10 Sundays a year, has a budget of $16,000 and doesn’t have running water or heat.

In his statement, the bishop said he asked diocesan priests to maintain a humble lifestyle and noted he gives 20% of his salary to church charity.

He said Malia’s nightlife crawls suggested “a remarkable departure from normal standards of modest living” and said a billionaire wouldn’t even spend money like that.

Malia shrugged off the criticism. “I give more to charity than he does,” he said, saying he’d doled out “hundreds of thousands” to unnamed nonprofit organizations.

He was reticent about his personal life, refusing to discuss his bitter 2005 divorce, his estrangement from his two daughters or his 1991 arrest for assault.

His estranged brother, Tim Malia, said he grew up in foster care and had a difficult childhood because of his hemophilia.

“He’s partying because he must be in a lot of pain,” he said. “I’ve watched him suffer from a little kid onward.”