Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome is real, and those who suffer from it need help – and sympathy. But it’s best when they seek help, rather than turn to gambling. Especially when they use church money to finance their habit. The Case Amer Saka was the priest at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in London,…
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Give them credit: they were using tamper-evident plastic bags to store the collection. But they saved a few bucks by buying the ones that didn’t have serial numbers. Bad decision… The Case Juan Garza-Gonzalez, 51, was the priest and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in South Hutchinson, KS,. He started in June…
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How does the process work? It’s pretty straightforward and easy, actually. And LOTS easier than a CPA site visit! Someone at your church – might be you – pretty much knows how money comes in and goes out. The first thing you need to do is tell me who this person is. This person spends…
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You’re a small church of 65 people. Your members care for each other and are sacrificial givers. And those who went before were good stewards, so the church isn’t hurting for money. But STILL – the church secretary really isn’t supposed to walk off with nearly $200,000… The Case Amy Krohmer, 43, was the church…
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When you’re a small church, the pastor gets to do most everything. Here, the pastor helped with donation checks, the mail and the collection box. And helped himself… The Case George Harris, 58, was the pastor of New Day Fellowship Church in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Members put their contributions into a collection box…
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“You used the church credit card for personal expenses?” “Yeah – I needed to buy a shovel so I could bury my mother in the yard…” The Case Maria Lutz was the church treasurer for ten years, and also took care of the bookkeeping. She had church credit cards, too. One day the church received…
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A Lutheran church in Nebraska was thrilled to have an accountant volunteer to be the church financial secretary and keep their books. Two years – and $109,000 later – they realized that this might not have been a good idea. The Case Michael Pommer, 45, of Wakefield, Nebraska, was arrested on October 22, 2018, facing…
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Ever wonder what’s in someone else’s mailbox? The Case If you mail a check to the church, it really ought to get there. The Post Office did their job, but trailing the postal carrier were allegedly four individuals with masks and sacks over their shoulders. OK, that may be embellishing things a bit. But what…
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The Case: You have an extremely dedicated employee, who never takes a vacation. It’s time to kick them out the door – at least for a couple of weeks. According to the indictment, the office manager embezzled over $200,000 over six years: she was the bookkeeper for the church, and falsified records to cover her…
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The Case: Your paycheck stub shows that some of your money went to the IRS. Normally, one wants to keep that number low, but some folks deliberately overpay. This fellow appears to have overpaid his taxes by well over two million dollars… just for starters. Charles Sebesta, 54, was the chairman of the board for…
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The Case: A church debit card is supposed to be used only for church business? The First Christian Church of Garden Grove is likely to stress this with future treasurers. The church treasurer was hired in 1978, and had a church debit card. Apparently she thought it was OK to use it for personal expenses…
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