Church finance manager pleads guilty to stealing $775K through complex scheme
A former employee of a Florida church has reportedly pleaded guilty to stealing $775,000 from its parish operating account over five months.
A plea agreement obtained by Catholic News Agency confirms that Heather Darrey defrauded Christ the King Catholic Church in Tampa while employed as the church's records and finance manager.
Darrey's duties reportedly included generating printed bank checks payable to the parish's vendors and getting signatures from parish officials. According to the filing, Darrey would then "destroy the authorized printed bank checks" and "prepare new handwritten bank checks in the same amounts as the legitimate ones but made payable to her personal accounts and creditors."
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Darrey would create fraudulent data and enter it into the church's records "to make it appear that she had mailed the printed bank checks," the plea deal said.
An audit of the church's accounting software and bank accounts shows a "loss amount of $775,196.90 in funds stolen by Darrey using the ... fraudulent scheme" from October 2023 to March 2024.
"A review of Darrey's Financial Institution #2 bank account statements and other financial records revealed expensive purchases of concert and show tickets, luxury goods, payments to her home mortgage, and other purchases for herself and others," the filing states.
Before the church discovered the stolen funds, Darrey initially confessed to having stolen a smaller sum of money from the church. She reportedly begged the church to "not contact the authorities and press charges."
The plea deal carries "a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment," a maximum $250,000 fine and "a term of supervised release of not more than three years."
Darrey was ordered to pay the $775,000 in restitution to the church and "any other victim as determined by the court."
In a statement to CNA last week, the diocese said the church had been "the victim of a complex financial crime" and assured that "no parishioner's personal financial information was compromised while this criminal activity took place."
"We are praying for healing, especially for this former employee's family as they try to come to terms with all of this," the diocese said at the time.
Christ the King Catholic Church offers "a variety of ministries, each pointed to fulfill our mission here at Christ The King: to serve God and care for people."
"Whether you are drawn to Bible studies, mission, outreach, worship or any other area of service, there is a place for you to grow and contribute your unique gifts and talents here," the church added.
According to a 2019 report by Brotherhood Mutual, fraud committed against churches worldwide may reach the $80 billion mark by 2025.
"Church thieves are creative," says Tom Lichtenberger, assistant vice president of property claims at Brotherhood Mutual. "Often, church people can't bring themselves to believe that their pastor, a church trustee, long-time member, or the school cook could possibly steal from the church."
"Normally, it's one of the most trusted people in the church who's pilfering from the collection plate, or diverting funds from the church budget or investment accounts to feed their spending habits or pay personal debts."
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post.
