64-year-old Church Secretary Faces 280 Years in Prison for Embezzling Tithes and Offerings
A 64-year-old church secretary was just found guilty on 14 counts of embezzlement after being accused of stealing at least $670,000 from the house of worship she attended for over two decades. According to a statement from the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office:
In early 2023, the church attempted to make a donation to another local church for a new building. However, when the church board could not reach Mrs. Ragland, who was traveling, to get a letter from their bank about available funds they reached out directly to the bank. The bank told the church that the church did not have enough money for the donation in their bank account. The board immediately knew something was wrong.
The discovery prompted the church to obtain and examine their financial records, which were turned over to the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office for further investigation. The investigation revealed that in addition to taking funds from the church’s bank account, Ragland deposited congregation members’ tithings to the church via Cashapp in her personal bank account for several years.
Louisa Commonwealth Attorney Rusty McGuire revealed that the amount of money she stole could be much higher, but bank records only went back seven years and there is no way of knowing how much she took before then. The name of the church affected was not revealed.
Ragland is out on bond and is set to be sentenced January 27, 2025, where she faces up to 280 years in prison.
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Sickening. Throw away the ley.
leaving such a paper trail is something democrats would never do. They use offshore accounts. Just as Zelensky.
Who doesn’t at least annually review their financial records?!
Was on a committee once to sort out a church’s fishy finances. It’s a nightmare if the minister and his henchman are the culprits as they conveniently under report cash from collection plates and things like bake sales.
Found out all kinds of weird pay outs like we had a huge photocopier monthly lease because minister was friends with the rep. Then found out the secretary used the copier for all her children’s school and extra curricular activities, but never bought any paper or replaced a toner., the church paid. Then there’s the “miscellaneous funds for odds and ends.” No receipts as “I forgot” or “I didn’t think my word wasn’t good enough.”
Checking financial statements or balances? Hard to do when the elders just take minister’s word for everything. No one runs the business end like a business as far as accounting for every cent taken in or spent. They’ll campaign all day to raise money though. Our situation, he had a dual degree- one in finance. When confronted a regional rep for the investment fund the minister diddled in come in to defend his good buddy. Guy profited off the fund. After large church meeting, minister remained.
Even when you try to pin the snake down, it just coils right back up.
This is poor reporting, ignoring basic journalism standards. There is NO LOCATION given for this church. “Louisa County”? So where in the world is that? NO CHURCH NAME is given. Yeah, yeah, the reporter wants to shield the church’s identity but since the thief is going to trial to be paid for by taxpayer funds then readers, taxpayers, and the public have a right to know. The thief already likely has a lawyer anyway. For all we know this story is bogus. A million years ago when I took a basic journalism course at the University of Texas they taught us every story must meet the five W’s — what happened, who did it, when, where, and why. More and more I see news stories failing to meet these most minimal of requirements.