BATON ROUGE - The CEO of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation has been fired amid an investigation into alleged wrongdoing, a hospital spokesperson said Tuesday.

According to a statement from Our Lady of the Lake, John Paul Funes was fired after a third-party investigation revealed what it called a "pattern of forgery and embezzlement of funds."

A statement said hospital staff was "shocked and appalled" by the news. The matter has been turned over to law enforcement for further investigation.

According to IRS filings from 2017, Funes' salary was listed at $283,000. The foundation itself had a total of $40 million in listed assets.

You can read the full statement below.

John Paul Funes, President of Our Lady of the Lake Foundation, has been terminated. This termination is the result of a third-party investigation that found a pattern of forgery and embezzlement of funds by Mr. Funes. We have notified law enforcement.

We are shocked and appalled at what we have learned. Our Lady of the Lake Foundation is integral to our healing ministry and helped us reach so many important goals that would have been unattainable otherwise. We have engaged Deloitte, a leading third-party financial audit firm, to review our process and procedures to evaluate the safeguards we have in place to protect our ministry.

Mr. Funes’ actions in no way represent the values and mission of the Our Lady of the Lake and the Foundation, and the hundreds of volunteers and donors who have given so much over the years.

Because this matter is the subject of a criminal investigation, we cannot disclose any further detail about Mr. Funes’ actions.