Churches are not typically the place you’d think to find cases of embezzlement. However, fraud occurs everywhere and in many different forms.
This is the case for Ms. Chanell Easton, who allegedly embezzled monies while employed with a church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Ms. Easton worked as the church administrator at the church and allegedly used credit cards associated with the church to make personal purchases at a hair salon, retail stores, online retailers, a vacation rental service, and to buy VIP concert tickets. One of these credit cards belonged to the church’s youth minister and was used to make thousands of dollars in unauthorized personal purchases on Zappos.com.
This shows the complexity of investigating and discovering fraud, as the use of the youth minister’s credit card made it unlikely the church would suspect Ms. Easton of embezzlement and allowed the scheme to continue.
Ms. Easton also allegedly transferred money directly from the church’s bank accounts and to her own personal bank account, and forged checks to pay down the balance of her own personal credit card and pay her cellphone provider for her personal bills and new phones.
Ms. Easton had access to checks, credit cards, and church bank accounts. Ms. Easton also recorded and reconciled the bank accounts to which she had access. This allowed Ms. Easton to allegedly misappropriate monies through multiple means and avoid suspicion for years.
Photo by Marina M.
