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Self-described bishop Sava Cosas charged with ID fraud
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sarena McRae
Plain Dealer Reporter

A Cleveland man who calls himself a bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Exile was arraigned Monday on two cases involving theft and stolen identity.

Sava Cosas, 51, is charged with identity fraud, telecommunications fraud, misuse of credit cards and theft.

Cosas opened a credit card using another man's name and personal information in April 2007, said Ryan Miday, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office. He used the card to make purchases totaling $6,721.34, authorities say.

If convicted of all charges in this case, Cosas faces up to 14½ years in prison.

In the second case, Cosas is accused of forging a check for $650 in the name of Robert Anderson, 60, priest in the Syro Russian Orthodox Church. Anderson had moved into Cosas' home in October 2005 to take over his church while Cosas was imprisoned on a federal gambling conviction. When Cosas completed his sentence, Anderson moved out of Cosas' house to start his own ministry. But, Anderson's mail continued to come to the house.

Cosas opened a Capital One account in Anderson's name and on Aug. 16 forged a courtesy check for $650 in Anderson's name, Miday said. Anderson said that Cosas has a history of misusing funds.

"He has used the church and black robe to get money out of people," Anderson said. "Somebody's got to stop this man. He's written bad checks to everyone that he deals with."

If convicted of all charges in this case, Cosas faces a maximum of four years in prison. Cosas posted a $1,500 bond.

Recent media coverage of these two cases has caused leaders in the church to challenge Cosas' claim that he is actually a bishop.

Nicolae Condrea, archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in America, said Cosas is not a part of the church.

"Cosas is not with us," he said. "He calls himself a bishop, but he is not in the Romanian Church."

A sad story. Robert Anderson, mentioned in the story seems to be an innocent victim.


I was wondering about the Syro Russian Orthodox Church, is this a typo or another fake Orthodox Church?

It is vaguely possible that the "Syro-Russian Orthodox Church" has some ephemeral connection with Aftimios Ofiesh, who was a legitimate Syrian bishop in the nineteen-twenties, got married, and left a few "bishops" here and there. I'm not aware of any organized body still flying his flag, but then there are many phenomena I'm not aware of.

Fr. Serge

I found this through a Google search:

http://www.rbsocc.org/

That's correct.

Aftimios Ofiesh is a major source of "holy orders" for dozens of vagant sects in th Internet that call themselves Orthodox, mainly through Ignatius Nichols, who was consecrated by Ofiesh as an attempt to create a Western Rite Metropolia within the American Orthodox Church.

The Syro-Russian Church is one of these vagant groups.

The Romanian one probably originated as a part of Bishop Valerian's Romanian diocese.

O, dear. This outfit, if one can believe their claims, is one of the many small groups which seem to "descend" from Joseph Rene Vilatte, who was ordained the episcopate India or Ceylon. Best to give them a wide berth.

Fr. Serge

There are two canonical Romanian episcopates in the US -

• The Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas (ROAA) a/k/a The Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada (ROAAC) and
• The Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America (ROEA).

The former is subject to the Romanian Patriarchate; the latter is a component episcopate of the OCA.

Archbishop Valerian was the presiding hierarch of the ROEA. Neither he nor the ROEA had or have any connection, historical or current, with the Romanian Orthodox Church In Exile (ROC-Exile). ROAAC, likewise, has no connection with the ROC-Exile.

ROC-Exile is under the omophor of the Byelorussian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (BOAC).