A Massachusetts monk claims “insidious lies” about him being a fake cleric and splurging on luxury items led the feds to bring multimillion-dollar COVID-relief fraud charges against him — which were later dismissed — but his church and reputation never recovered, new court papers show.
Rev. Father Andrew Bushell, an Orthodox Christian monk at St. Nicholas church, sued the Department of Justice, FBI agents and the town of Marblehead, Mass., after arresting him under false pretenses in 2022 for allegedly carrying out a $3.6 million fraud scheme — only to toss out the charges a year later, according to a federal lawsuit filed last Friday.
He and his church’s general counsel Tracey Stockton were accused of blowing the funds on $40,000 in antique furniture, $90,000 in audio video system equipment, a $40,000 Swiss watch, a $7,000 Goyard handbag, expensive wine and $2,400 in Hermes and luxury items.
Bushell told The Post in an exclusive interview that the accused parties to the suit should be “in jail” for what they put him through, which has caused donors to lose faith in his ministry, burdened him with legal fees and kept the construction of the monastic shrine and place of worship from being completed.
“[Former Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael] Rollins weaponized the DOJ, FBI and other federal agents to manufacture a pack of lies to destroy St. Nicholas, me and intimidate God-fearing Orthodox Christians,” he said.
Now, the monk is suing under claims of violation of religious freedom, conspiracy, retaliation and other related allegations — after the Trump administration acknowledged the extent of other anti-Christian discrimination and “weaponized” prosecutions under the Biden DOJ.
“Armed” federal agents “in tactical gear” busted into St. Nicholas church in a “military-style,” “pre-dawn raid,” taking him “away in handcuffs” while he was praying on Oct. 13, 2022, the civil suit claims.
“The timing and manner of the arrest were designed to maximize psychological pressure and public humiliation, not to serve any legitimate law enforcement purpose,” added Stockton in the 20-page filing.
He wasn’t provided with his prayer rope, rosary or Bible while he was locked up and he was forced to eat food that violated his “monastic dietary practices,” the filing alleges.
Rollins — who resigned from office after being faulted for an “extraordinary” abuse of power by federal ethics watchdogs in 2023 — claimed when bringing the case that Bushell’s conduct was “brazen, criminal behavior” that took advantage of taxpayer-funded relief.
Rollins left office on May 19, 2023, and was found the following day in a DOJ inspector general’s report to have improperly meddled in the Suffolk County district attorney’s race. In September 2025, she agreed to a public reprimand for her actions by the Massachusetts Bar.
Former FBI Boston field office special agent in charge Joseph Bonavolonta, who is named in the suit, claimed in a statement at the time of Bushell’s arrest that Bushell was “a purported Orthodox Christian monk” who spent “tens of thousands of dollars on exclusive memberships, expensive wine, property, renovations, and even a $40,000 wristwatch.”
Bushell said the charging documents were full of “defamatory and misleading fictions of misspent church funds that either mischaracterized $18 bottles of wine for church events, misconstrued clerical memberships donors gave to help serve the Church’s mission, or were simply not true.”
The watch as well as other items were also given as gifts, according to Bushell, who noted he sought the relief funding from the federal government to renovate his chapel and build a monastic brewery next door.
“My monastic vocation began when I entered the Pontifical Gregorian University at the Vatican at age 19, struggled like many Orthodox seminarians with a desire to marry and have a family, matured when I became a member of an Athonite monastery 10 years before COVID, and has continued for the last 8 years without a day of rest or vacation to overcome one challenge after another to build a shrine dedicated to St. Nicholas,” he added.
The feds dismissed the case against Bushell on Nov. 8, 2023 in a one-page court document, saying the move was “in the interests of justice.” The document offered no further explanation for the dismissal.
“After coming to realize Plaintiff Father Andrew was sincere in his religious beliefs, that Father Andrew was a genuine Orthodox monk, and neither Father Andrew nor the religious organizations under his oversight were ‘frauds,’ the DOJ had no choice but to dismiss all charges,” Stockton wrote in the filing.
Rollins is not a party to the suit, nor is Assistant US Attorney David Holcomb, who helped with the prosecution, though the latter was slammed by Stockton for getting “rolled” by the bureau’s shoddy investigative work.
Stockton also said the egregious prosecution against Bushell and herself should “terrify every American.”
Bushell and Stockton’s counter-suit claims investigators only mounted the bogus criminal charges because of a long-running beef Marblehead had against him over its belief he and his church were “posturing as religious organizations” for the tax benefits, the court documents allege.
“Marblehead officials made false reports to the Federal Bureau of Investigations that Father Andrew was not a real monk and none of the organizational defendants were legitimate religious organizations,” the suit says.
“These insidious lies achieved their goals,” the suit charges.
Prior to that, the town repeatedly put up roadblocks for him opening a monastic brewery and erecting a shrine, by trying to bar him from getting building permits and rejecting electrical work for the facility, the court papers allege.
Despite the charges getting dismissed, “the stain associated with the federal fraud allegations remains,” the documents claim.
The church lost support from major donors and Bushell’s “reputation has been irreparably harmed,” the suit alleges.
The case was brought to stop him from continuing to practice his faith in Marblehead, “to destroy” his life and to stop him from “ministering to others according to his faith,” the filing claims.
He is suing for unspecified damages, all of which will be returned to his ministry if he succeeds in the legal challenge.
The DOJ, FBI and the town of Marblehead didn’t return requests for comment Monday. Rollins and Bonavolonta could not be reached for comment.
The post Monk sues DOJ for falsely accusing him of stealing $3.6M in COVID-relief funds to buy Swiss watch, expensive wine appeared first on New York Post.
