Thursday 14 March 2013


 

Fraud in Houses of Worship

Through my ongoing research, I came across an article that sparked my interest “ Fraud in Houses of Worship”. The article details a former church secretary defrauding a 200 member church congregation for 18 months by writing herself duplicate paychecks, stealing cash from donation deposits and taking credit card accounts in the church name, among other schemes.

In the current economic climate, am not surprised to see an uptick in this type of fraud, fraud examiners who are incharge of church finances and internal controls may be labelled as overreacting conspiracy theorist, when they tell church staffs they may have fraudsters in their midst, however fraud examiners know fully well that fraud can occur anywhere and at anytime.

Proper segregation of duties, effective internal control system in place and a proper employee background check would have identified a serious red flag for fraud but the church left it rather late.

 
If you would like to discuss this case, or any other fraud related topic, I invite you to contact me via email, contact@emgfraudconsulting.co.uk

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