Posted on 06/06/2024 8:32:55 AM PDT by Morgana
A court in Idaho Falls, Idaho, has determined that a case will move forward for a church employee accused of stealing over $330,000.
In May, police arrested and charged Kaitlyn L. Fisher, 31, with three counts of felony grand theft while working for the Presbytery of Kendall—a church organization overseeing at least 12 eastern Idaho Presbyterian churches.
According to court documents, Fisher was the Presbytery of Kendall’s secretary and bookkeeper. In October 2022, a Kendall Presbytery employee reported that Fisher had been embezzling from church funds.
The employee told police the staff had paused meetings for the presbytery’s annual financial reviews since the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they were not meeting, the employee claimed to have repeatedly requested that Fisher produce a report of the Presbytery of Kendall’s finances.
In October 2022, the board of trustees chair collected the organization’s bank statements by contacting the banks directly, East Idaho News reported. According to the claims, the employees uncovered “numerous unauthorized purchases and transfers out of both accounts via Venmo and Paypal dating back as far as 2020.”
The Presbytery of Kendall’s Wells Fargo account listed Fisher’s Venmo account as a payment method for transactions.
The documents say two employees confronted Fisher, and she allegedly admitted to making unauthorized transfers and purchases. But two months later, when an Idaho Falls Police officer questioned Fisher about the allegations, she denied taking the money.
From Fisher’s PayPal and Venmo transaction histories, investigators estimated that Fisher spent over $338,458 in church funds on unauthorized purchases from January 2019 to October 2022.
Fisher reportedly used the church money to buy a red 2018 Honda 4-wheeler and pay a local landscape designer. The secretary also deducted over $280,000 from the organization’s Wells Fargo account and used the stolen funds to finish a basement in her new house, police records say.
Her mortgage, child care, food, gas, furniture, and a dog were all additional charges.
A preliminary hearing on May 29 concluded with a motion to continue the case. Fisher’s next court date is June 12.
The Presbytery of Kendall is part of the Presbyterian Church USA, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. and recognized for its progressive teaching.
If convicted, Fisher faces up to 42 years in prison.
Why are the woke Presbyterians offended by someone who is “differently financed”?
That is a great one! I'm going to steal it!
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So where in God's name (!) are the auditors???
I can see embezzlement not getting caught within a fiscal year, but this crossed 4 fiscal years.
Large expenses are supposed to be heavily sampled by auditors, and all support for those be presented - purchase orders, check or transaction copies, invoices, all meticulously approved. Where was all that?
If there was no audit, then that is on the board/elders, specifically the finance subcommittee. (sorry, meant to have this broken up into more digestible paragraphs)
You wanna see theft...
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/october/covid-study-ppp-loans-cares-act-churches.html
Deep State bought off churches with billions in taxpayer money.
Why is nobody po’d about that?!
“It amazes me that no one in the church caught on till it got to be this much.”
My first thought. They should be arresting the OTHER church leaders for fully trusting ANYONE with large amounts of money. I’d say one person in charge, but 3 others with full access to every transaction and bank statement.
I wonder if you can set up an online account that requires two separate passwords from two different users. Would stop a lot of this theft.
I don’t think they should make a big deal of this. After all, Whites are entitled to some white collar offenses also.
Notice how most of these publicized embezzlers as of late, are women?
Pedo Pete took millions in chicom bribes.
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