Church employee gets five years in prison after embezzling $450,000 in Texas, feds say
A church employee in Texas has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after she embezzled over $450,000 in church funds, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
The former bookkeeper at the Church on the Rock in Lubbock used the money for “personal enrichment,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham said in the release.
Lisa Dawn Stabeno pleaded guilty in May 2021 on two charges of bank fraud, the release said. She was sentenced on Nov. 18.
Stabeno’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
In her plea, the 52-year-old said she began stealing money from Church on the Rock in November 2013, four months after she was hired.
Stabeno said she used two credit cards that were associated with two employees of the non-denominational church to take care of a laundry list of expenses for herself. She took out a car loan with her daughter, paid for medical and dental care, bought supplies for a bakery she co-owned with her daughters, as well as clothes, salon services and restaurant meals, according to the release.
Then, starting in 2014, she began making direct payments to herself with the credit cards using an app, prosecutors said.
The next year, Stabeno opened two more credit cards — one with her name, and one in her daughter’s name — and used them for “personal expenses,” including paying off the debt from the initial cards. She also used them to pay workers at her bakery, as well to buy items for the business, and boosted her and her daughter’s salaries.
According to the release, the church uncovered Stabeno’s fraud in 2018, and fired her.
At her sentencing, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix said Stabeno’s thefts were “brazen” and ordered her to pay $450,000 in restitution, the release said.
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Church employee gets five years in prison after embezzling $450,000 in Texas, feds say."
