![]() ![]() The checks were falsely recorded in church records as “donations” and environmental remediation payments to a fictitious “Sky Blue Environmental” company. Sebesta stole a significant majority of the proceeds for his personal use, including purchasing a home with more than $2 million in cashier’s checks drawn from church bank accounts. ![]() In the fall of 2008, Sebesta oversaw the sale of church property in Hollywood for approximately $12.8 million. To further conceal these payments, Sebesta forged a church member’s signature on numerous checks drawn against the church’s bank accounts. He joined the church four years later and ultimately served as its chairman, giving him control over the church branch’s financial assets and operations, including some of its bank accounts.įrom 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. The church hired Sebesta in 2001 as its facilities manager. He has been in federal custody since his arrest in August 2019. Sebesta pleaded guilty in February 2020 to one count of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud. Wilson, who also ordered him to pay $11,438,213 in restitution. ![]() LOS ANGELES – The former chairman of the board of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Los Angeles was sentenced today to 130 months in federal prison for stealing more than $11 million in church funds.Ĭharles Thomas Sebesta, 56, of Huntington Beach, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stephen V. ![]()
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