Pastor was stealing money and I had to be the whistle blower. It sucked

Until recently I worked for a church , very part time just a couple of hours a week. I’ve been there for about 8 years, it was a great side hustle for me, super enjoyable job and the easiest money I’ve ever made.

Once I started seeing the red flags I realized in hindsight the pastor has been stealing from the church for a long time I just never questioned anything because I trusted him as a man of God. For example if he told me he needed me to write a check so he could give money to someone in need, I believed him. (Managing quickbooks was part of my job. )

He and his wife were always going on extravagant vacations and expensive dinners , and his wife didn’t work, but I just assumed his wife came from money or something and didn’t really think much of it.

The red flag happened in June. I was told by the pastor that there was fraud on the bank account, so our bank accounts were closed and we had to get all new accounts. He told me I had to go to the bank to get my own online banking log in and become an authorized user on the account . He refused to just give me his online log in which I thought was weird because I’ve been using someone else’s online log in for the entire time I’ve worked there and didn’t see the big deal . When I went to the bank I told them “please just give me inquiry access, I don’t want to be able to do any online banking or make any withdraws.” It occurred to me that maybe something suspicious was going on and I didn’t want any part of it.

I had to ask the bank teller for the statement from the previous month because i needed it to reconcile the account and I no longer had access to the closed account online , and I saw suspicious activity on it, like a personal loan payment to an unknown account for 3k, and an online transfer of $500 to another unknown account. When I asked the pastor about it he said it was part of the fraud. I didn’t believe him.

The bank account was so low at this time that I couldn’t pay the bills or write paychecks for myself or the musicians. (Meanwhile the pastor is telling me about the fabulous dinner he and his wife had while they were in Aspen and how much it costed).

I started paying closer attention to what he was doing and looking back and questioning all of his past transactions . I started recording our conversations.

I found a lot of evidence of possible embezzlement, and i didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to rat out the pastor because I’ve know him for a long time and he really is a nice man, but I also didn’t feel like I could talk to him directly about it . I knew blowing the whistle would probably result in losing my side hustle which I didn’t want . I ended up calling a lawyer. The lawyer said I should call the police. I didn’t want the pastor to go to jail , so I decided to tell the elders.

I was so scared to tell them because I’ve never met them before and didn’t know anything an about their relationship to the pastor. For all I knew they could have been in on it too. I showed them the evidence and they agreed that the transactions were suspicious. They were heartbroken about it. I was hoping they would just fire him, get a new pastor and we could move on, but they escalated it to the head of the church which now I understand was the right move.

I didn’t expect to be involved in this for so long. I thought once I blew the whistle they’d take my information and do what they wanted with it, but for months , the elders, head of the church board, and I had weekly meetings. He was lying and stealing during that time too. He would even lie about the elders, not knowing I was meeting with them. For example he’d say, “can you write me a check for 2k? ________ elder wants me to give money to the Salvation Army”. Then when I met with the elders and ask if they said that they said they didn’t. At one point he told me the elders wanted me to work twice as much as I was and that they were mad at me. They didn’t say that either. I think maybe he knew I was on to him and wanted me to quit or something.

The elders hired an investigator and we found out that he had multiple accounts tied to the church that I didn’t even know about, and each account name was so similar that the bank allowed him to deposit checks written to the church into those accounts and he was able to pocket all of that money. That’s why he didn’t want me to use his online log in, because I’d be able to see the secret accounts.

The elders knew about another account that was supposed to be a savings account and according to the church bylaws was always supposed to have $150k in it and it only had $300. I had no idea

The investigation is still ongoing but he’s probably stolen at least 500k.

The church closed, and the head of the church emailed all of the members and just told them it was due to lack of money and membership. I got a new side hustle that I’m really excited about. I hope the pastor doesn’t go to jail.