She was a trusted employee who kept the books for Visalia First Assembly of God Church for years. But Visalia Police say Sandy Arreola cooked the books and embezzled more than two million dollars.
Sandy Arreola spent a dozen years as accounting manager of Visalia First Assembly Of God. Pastor Mike Robertson said two years ago the numbers just didn't add up. "A few regularities began to surface while testing the payroll system. Additional discrepancies in the handling of contributions came to light as a result of a further internal investigation in conjunction with a forensic audit."
First Assembly Of God hired a Los Angeles based accounting firm that discovered 2–point–1 million dollars had been embezzled since 2003. Pastor Robertson says Arreola became uncooperative with auditors and resigned in 2009.
Thursday she was arrested by Visalia Police on embezzlement charges and booked into jail. Her bail has been set a one million dollars.
The church says it has put personnel and procedures in place to keep this from happening again. While the church lost more than 2-million dollars in tithes and church offerings, Pastor Robertson said it recovered a susbstantial amount through its insurance policy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment