Ladera Ranch, California Church secretary admits stealing $200,000

A former church secretary who pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing more than $200,000 in church donations will be sentenced to five years in prison, county prosecutors said. Crystina Renee Bock, 38, of Ladera Ranch, used to work part-time as the financial secretary for the Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo.
On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to 62 felony counts of grand theft, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.
She will be sentenced to five years in state prison and ordered to pay more than $200,000 in restitution on May 7, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Bock stole the funds between June 2005 and September 2008. Bock, who prepared the church's deposits, took over 440 congregants' donation checks and deposited them into her personal account, prosecutors said.
Church officials discovered the theft in September 2008 and alerted police, they said.

Man in Chino, California denies embezzlement charge

The attorney for an Ontario man accused of embezzling close to $1 million from a local church has denied the charges.

Farrukh Ahmed of Ontario is accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from coffers at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. He was hired as a church administrator four years ago.
"This case is upsetting because there is no way in the world that my client embezzled $900,000," according to a statement from David Diamond, Ahmed's Los Angeles-based attorney. "Pastor Hibbs had unfettered access to the church monies and was never responsible to show or explain how or why the money was being spent."
Diamond said his investigation will include an accounting of the church's finances.
Ahmed appeared on Thursday for an arraignment hearing at the San Bernardino County Superior Courthouse in Chino. The hearing was continued to April 7.
Police on Dec. 23 arrested Ahmed, 47, at his home in the 500 block of Doral Avenue in Ontario on suspicion of felony burglary and embezzlement charges.
The FBI, which is investigating, reported from $720,000 to $960,000 in funds were stolen from the church, said Jack Hibbs, pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
"They were shocked and disheartened and they were very tearful," Hibbs said. "They felt very violated."
Ahmed joined Calvary Chapel about 12 years ago.

LAPD is conducting a criminal investigation of Second Baptist Church

Another one of our big, historic, prestigious, and influential Black churches is in trouble with the law. Second Baptist Church. It pains me to have to report this, but what has happened and is happening at the 125-year-old Second Baptist Church — the first African-American Baptist Church in Southern California — is news, albeit, bad news, and I am compelled to tell it because “telling it” — warts and all — is my raison d’etre.

Here it is: The LAPD is conducting a criminal investigation of Second Baptist Church into the probable embezzlement of at least $750,000 from its credit union and the church is party to a lawsuit filed in federal court pursuant to the demise of its credit union and the disappearance of the credit union’s money.
Detective Don Watkins of the Newton Division’s Burglary Unit (which handles all property crimes) said the SBC Credit Union became defunct and inactive last year and “my job is to find out what happened to the money,” he said. “This is a criminal investigation and I am following the money, as I must determine who took it. So far, it looks like about $750,000 is missing, but that figure could go higher.”
I asked the detective who he thinks took the money. “I’m not at a point yet in which I am ready to point fingers and name names, but I will get there,” Watkins said. The detective also said a lawsuit with respect to the missing money was filed in civil court, but at a hearing in October the lawsuit was sent out of civil court and re-filed in federal court, where a hearing has been scheduled for later this month.
My intelligence report notes the names of several people allegedly involved in this problem, but, like Watkins, I will decline to mention them until I see those, or other names, written in court documents. At that point, the venerable Second Baptist will come out of Soulvine and join St. Paul Baptist, Double Rock Baptist, First AME, Ward AME and Brookins AME on the front page.

Compton, California pastor to be sentenced in grand theft

The former pastor of a Compton church pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count of grand theft after he was accused of diverting more than $800,000 in offerings from his congregation, authorities said.

Eugene Joshua Sims, 48, who was pastor of Double Rock Baptist Church, will be sentenced to a year in county jail and five months of probation, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.
Prosecutors are asking that Sims repay the more than $800,000 that he embezzled from church members while serving as their pastor, according to the district attorney's office.
Sims allegedly deposited the money in a private bank account and then threatened members not to say anything during sermons after questions were raised, the district attorney's office said.
Sims entered his plea in Compton Superior Court as his preliminary hearing was set to begin. In exchange for his plea, one felony count each of dissuading a witness and money laundering will be dropped when he is sentenced March 19, the district attorney's office said.
Sims was ordered to stay away from Double Rock church while he is on probation, but he can preach and perform services at other churches, according to the district attorney's office.

Judge allows California church's lawsuit against former pastor to move forward

A Los Angeles judge tentatively ruled on January 5, 2010 that a lawsuit can move forward against a prominent black church pastor accused of misusing church assets.
Frederick Murph of Brookins Community African Methodist Episcopal Church and his wife, Rachel, are accused of encumbering church properties for more than $6 million.
Judge Rolf M. Treu said he was not inclined to throw out the complaint filed July 29 by the church.
Defense lawyers contended that the church's Book of Discipline sets guidelines that the church must follow in taking any legal action against a pastor. Treu said defense lawyers failed to show how the procedures apply to a former pastor or Murph's wife, who is not a member of the clergy.
The judge did throw out an embezzlement claim against the couple, saying there is no such action in civil law. He said church lawyers would have to provide more information to support fraud and breach-of-contract claims.
Treu scheduled a hearing tomorrow on his tentative rulings. The Murphs have denied wrongdoing.
According to the complaint, Murph was the pastor at the Brookins church from 1996 until his transfer to another South Los Angeles congregation in November 2008.
The new Brookins pastor, Joseph Nixon, discovered the alleged encumbrances and determined that only Murph had access to the church records and that he had not followed internal rules to get approval for any such actions with the steward or trustee boards, according to the complaint.
"Nixon discovered that Murph took out three mortgages from the Bank of America encumbering four of Brookins' properties, including the main church facility,'' the lawsuit states. "Murph committed fraud by forging signatures or church members to loan documents and creating resolutions from Brookins' trustee board and church conference ostensibly authorizing these loans ...,'' according to the complaint.
Murph also used $1.3 million of the financing for his personal use, the lawsuit states.
Rachel Murph "assisted her husband in this fraud,'' according to the lawsuit.

Scam hits Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, California hard

Congregation official held; hundreds of thousands lost

The arrest of an Ontario man accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from church coffers has shocked and angered the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills community.
Police in late December arrested Farrukh Ahmed, 47, at his Doral Avenue home on suspicion of felony burglary and embezzlement charges.
The FBI, which is investigating the theft, reported that between $720,000 and $960,000 was stolen over four years, Calvary Chapel pastor Jack Hibbs said.
"He was actually caught by one of our staff members with cash in hand," Hibbs said.
Hibbs announced the loss on December 27, 2009 to the congregation.
"They were shocked and disheartened and they were very tearful," Hibbs said. "They felt very violated."
The Chino Police Department was initially contacted by Ahmed on April 17 about theft and embezzlement of church money, Chino spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden said. Ahmed had been a church administrator.
"At that time, there was no suspect information available, and the subsequent investigation did not yield any leads," Van Der Linden said.
Hibbs said evidence included tithe envelopes that were found to have been opened.
Hibbs on Dec. 8 notified the Police Department that Ahmed might have been responsible for the theft of church funds reported in April.
The subsequent investigation led to Ahmed's arrest.
Ahmed joined Calvary Chapel about 12 years ago and regularly attended
services, Hibbs said.
Ahmed, who was born and raised in Pakistan, was a Muslim who emigrated to the United States in the 1980s. He converted to Christianity at Calvary Chapel where he became a church administrator four years ago, Hibbs said.
Ahmed had been a manager at retail stores in the area, Hibbs said. He is married and has children, Hibbs said.
"On the surface, he was very diligent and very conscientious, and he was the kind of man that would quickly gain your trust," Hibbs said. "He was hardworking and always on the ball."
Church member Mike Goody of Chino said Calvary Chapel members are praying for justice.
"As a Christian, we pray we forgive him for what he did ... but ultimately we seek justice," Goody said.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office has not filed charges against Ahmed. He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 25, according to online court records.
The Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, which is in Chino, has 7,000 adult members.