Over about three years, Traci Anderson embezzled around $200,000 from a Manhattan Beach church that was her place of worship and employer.
Anderson, 37, of Manhattan Beach, pleaded no contest in Torrance Superior Court June 9 to one embezzlement charge and a grand theft charge was dropped in exchange for her plea, according to the Daily Breeze. She was sentenced to two years in prison according to Deputy District Attorney Paul Guthrie for stealing from her employer, Church of the Beach Cities, and could have faced a maximum sentence of five years for the grand theft charge.
Pastor Jimmy Cheney originally reported $170,000 missing from the church account, but since the arrest took place April 26, he said that he has discovered $210,000 is missing. “We really trusted her (Anderson) a lot,” said Cheney. “She had been going to the church for six years.”
Cheney said Anderson’s life appeared exemplary and she was a good mother to her teenage son. In addition to her position as office manager, she helped in women’s ministries, led Bible studies, did some churchwide event coordinating, prayed regularly with staff and is a licensed minister, according to Cheney. “If someone is teaching the Bible, I would think they are really sincere,” said Cheney. “The congregation felt hurt and betrayed. This is someone we love and trusted. Some were angry, but people are really forgiving.”
The missing puzzle piece that led to Anderson’s undoing was a mathematical error that caught Cheney’s attention in one of the bank statements. “It just really jumped out at me, and I thought I would save her (Anderson) some time so I went to the bank to take care of it,” said Cheney. “The bank told me that the statement I had was phony, because they did not use that font.”
The first incident to raise a red flag was the months of unpaid rent owed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District for the weekend use of the old Manhattan Beach Middle School site, where the church holds its weekend services. The eight months’ rent, totaling about $31,000 according to the Daily Breeze, was discovered to be unpaid in September 2007 when the checks written to the School District were not clearing. Cheney said records showed that the money had been paid all along and when he asked Anderson about the situation, she said the district was having problems, it was their internal issue. He then wondered why the funds were not in the account if the checks actually never cleared.
“I did not know we were looking at phony bank statements. She was having the statements retyped and she was stealing money through online banking. She set up online accounts with my Social Security number,” said Cheney.
Anderson was paying all of the church’s bills, but whenever there was money left over, she would take it. Cheney said most of this money was from the missions fund, intended for areas of desperate need or affected by natural disasters. The congregation thought it sent an approximate $14,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief, but Cheney said the money never made it there.
“At least $145,000 of money designated for outreaches was stolen. The sad thing is, those organizations are struggling - they rely on churches like us,” said Cheney. “I would rather that she stole from me, but not from those that desperately need and rely on the money. They die if they don’t get it.”
Cheney said the church is recovering from the event, taking care of Anderson’s teenage son and is financially stable. He said the church now has a team of about seven overlooking the church’s finances. The team comprises church members, three of whom work in the financial field in banking and financing institutions.
“I hope and pray that this process will create change within her (Anderson) and that she realizes she can’t continue down this road,” said Cheney.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for July 9 in Torrance Superior Court.
Over about three years, Traci Anderson embezzled around $200,000 from a Manhattan Beach church that was her place of worship and employer.
Anderson, 37, of Manhattan Beach, pleaded no contest in Torrance Superior Court June 9 to one embezzlement charge and a grand theft charge was dropped in exchange for her plea, according to the Daily Breeze. She was sentenced to two years in prison according to Deputy District Attorney Paul Guthrie for stealing from her employer, Church of the Beach Cities, and could have faced a maximum sentence of five years for the grand theft charge.
Pastor Jimmy Cheney originally reported $170,000 missing from the church account, but since the arrest took place April 26, he said that he has discovered $210,000 is missing. “We really trusted her (Anderson) a lot,” said Cheney. “She had been going to the church for six years.”
Cheney said Anderson’s life appeared exemplary and she was a good mother to her teenage son. In addition to her position as office manager, she helped in women’s ministries, led Bible studies, did some churchwide event coordinating, prayed regularly with staff and is a licensed minister, according to Cheney. “If someone is teaching the Bible, I would think they are really sincere,” said Cheney. “The congregation felt hurt and betrayed. This is someone we love and trusted. Some were angry, but people are really forgiving.”
The missing puzzle piece that led to Anderson’s undoing was a mathematical error that caught Cheney’s attention in one of the bank statements. “It just really jumped out at me, and I thought I would save her (Anderson) some time so I went to the bank to take care of it,” said Cheney. “The bank told me that the statement I had was phony, because they did not use that font.”
The first incident to raise a red flag was the months of unpaid rent owed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District for the weekend use of the old Manhattan Beach Middle School site, where the church holds its weekend services. The eight months’ rent, totaling about $31,000 according to the Daily Breeze, was discovered to be unpaid in September 2007 when the checks written to the School District were not clearing. Cheney said records showed that the money had been paid all along and when he asked Anderson about the situation, she said the district was having problems, it was their internal issue. He then wondered why the funds were not in the account if the checks actually never cleared.
“I did not know we were looking at phony bank statements. She was having the statements retyped and she was stealing money through online banking. She set up online accounts with my Social Security number,” said Cheney.
Anderson was paying all of the church’s bills, but whenever there was money left over, she would take it. Cheney said most of this money was from the missions fund, intended for areas of desperate need or affected by natural disasters. The congregation thought it sent an approximate $14,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief, but Cheney said the money never made it there.
“At least $145,000 of money designated for outreaches was stolen. The sad thing is, those organizations are struggling - they rely on churches like us,” said Cheney. “I would rather that she stole from me, but not from those that desperately need and rely on the money. They die if they don’t get it.”
Cheney said the church is recovering from the event, taking care of Anderson’s teenage son and is financially stable. He said the church now has a team of about seven overlooking the church’s finances. The team comprises church members, three of whom work in the financial field in banking and financing institutions.
“I hope and pray that this process will create change within her (Anderson) and that she realizes she can’t continue down this road,” said Cheney.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for July 9 in Torrance Superior Court.
|
from Archives: Manhattan Beach News 
