Cops: FL Priest And Bookkeeper Embezzled $1.5 Million

September 20, 2022 Crime, Religion

West Palm Beach’s ABC affiliate reports:

Police said the investigation revealed that the church’s former parish administrator, Deborah True, and former pastor, Richard Murphy, opened a bank account in the name of “Holy Cross Catholic Church” in 2012. Police said bank records show that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners’ donations were fraudulently deposited into the account since 2015.

From 2015 until 2020, officials said True used more than $500,000 of those funds to pay off personal lines of credit. An additional $147,000 was withdrawn from the account and deposited into True’s personal checking account. The investigation revealed that Murphy also personally benefited from the funds in the account. However, Murphy died in 2020.

Read the full article.

Former parish administrator, ex-pastor in Vero Beach use bogus bank account to steal $1.5 million, police sayhttps://t.co/fTxQDpcIP7

— WPTV (@WPTV) September 20, 2022