The church now wants its money back.
An attorney for the archdiocese said the conspiracy to commit fraud was discovered while investigating recent lawsuits — in what involved some intensive detective work.
"It is like finding a needle in a haystack," said attorney James Geoly.
The legal team combed through thousands of hours of recorded phone conversations by people suing the church — alleging abuse by disgraced priest Daniel McCormack.
The "victims" were themselves behind bars for unrelated crimes.
How did the legal team even know to start with recorded prison calls in their investigation?
"I think it began when one of the people who sued us happened to be in prison," said Geoly.
Audio from those prison conversations is outlined in a nearly 40-page counter-lawsuit just filed by the archdiocese. Multiple defendants are accused in the lawsuit of pretending to be Fr. McCormack's victims to make a buck.
" I didn't go there," one person allegedly said. "I wasn't even in a program."
Another reportedly bragged that he was able to "make myself cry and all that."
"As we began to discover this scheme, we increased the vetting of the claims that came through the door — especially those involving Daniel McCormack," said Geoly.
McCormack pleaded guilty to five felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse in 2007. At least 130 people have reported inappropriate conduct by McCormack, according to the Illinois Attorney General's clergy report.
McCormack is considered "one of the most infamous child abusers anywhere in Illinois." But the Archdiocese said many claimed they were among his victims when they weren't.
"This is an actual racketeering enterprise," said Geoly.
Geoly said it was a money-making scheme, in which he believes cash that some of the defendants made through settlements with the church was then used to recruit people who had filed false claims to "get on the money train."
"They would give them scripts so that they would know what to say," Geoly said.
Melanie Sakoda, support director for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, stressed that bogus claims of priest sex abuse are rare.
"It makes me sad to think that someone would be making a false allegation," Sakoda said. "It's going to make it harder for those people who were really victimized to come forward."
Geoly is adamant that the church will seriously investigate any claims of sex abuse.
"We encourage people to come forward — anyone who's had a problem or thinks there's a problem with a priest — and it is not the intention of this lawsuit in any way to deter that," he said.
Meanwhile, another lawyer representing some of the men recorded in the jailhouse calls labeled the lawsuit "a fantastical, orchestrated narrative" that amounts to "a baseless attempt to shift blame away from the archdiocese's mismanagement of its priests."
The bottom line is around a dozen people claimed they were abused. The archdiocese says they are lying, and says all this is taking resources away from the real victims.