Charles Thomas Sebesta<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe judge also ordered him to pay $11,438,213 in restitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sebesta pleaded guilty in February 2020 to one count of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud. He has been in federal custody since his arrest in August 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The church hired Sebesta in 2001 as its facilities manager. He joined the church four years later and ultimately served as its chairman, giving him control over the church branch\u2019s financial assets and operations, including some of its bank accounts, according to officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has been in federal custody since his arrest in August 2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From at least August 2006 through December 2016, Sebesta caused the church to make checks and other payments to banks accounts in the name of fictitious companies he created, as well as to bank accounts he held in his own name and in the names of his family members and a female companion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To further conceal these payments, Sebesta forged a church member\u2019s signature on numerous checks drawn against the church\u2019s bank accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the fall of 2008, Sebesta oversaw the sale of church property in Hollywood for approximately $12.8 million. Sebesta stole a significant majority of the proceeds for his personal use, including purchasing a home with more than $2 million in cashier\u2019s checks drawn from church bank accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The checks were falsely recorded in church records as \u201cdonations\u201d and environmental remediation payments to a fictitious \u201cSky Blue Environmental\u201d company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2009 and 2010, Sebesta used church money to wire $1.86 million and $309,622 to be credited to his own personal tax accounts to generate overpayment refunds from the U.S. Treasury and the California Franchise Tax Board, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To conceal his crimes, Sebesta impersonated a real estate developer by creating an email account in the executive\u2019s name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Posing as the developer, Sebesta sent emails to church members in which he fraudulently represented that the real estate developer held Sebesta in high esteem and was making donations to the church and paying the rent for the church\u2019s new location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total, Sebesta stole at least $11,438,213 of church assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHaving wrested operational and financial control of the Church from its elderly members by 2006, [Sebesta] began a 10-year spree in which he treated the Church and its considerable assets as his own personal piggy bank,\u201d prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. \u201c[Sebesta] stole $11,438,213 and destroyed a venerable church, its congregation, and the faith its congregants had in one another by employing sophisticated means to abuse his position of trust and cause the Church not only substantial, but ruinous, financial hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sebesta also defrauded another former employer \u2013 a private high school in Los Angeles County \u2013 out of $34,032 and embezzled $36,282 that a donor\u2019s estate had donated to the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The U.S. Secret Service investigated this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES The former chairman of the board of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Los Angeles was sentenced Monday to 10 years and 10 months in federal prison for stealing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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