Docs: Ex-employee stole hundreds of thousands from Lafayette church

LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A Lafayette woman is facing 17 felony charges after police say she defrauded a church she worked for out of thousands of dollars.




According to court documents, 36-year-old Julia Wonnacott faces the following preliminary charges:

• Two counts of Fraud (Level 5 Felony)





• Fraud (Level 6 Felony)





• Corrupt Business Influence (Level 5 Felony)





• Money Laundering (Level 5 Felony)





• Three counts of Forgery (Level 6 Felony)





• Theft (Level 6 Felony)





• Two counts of Theft (Level 5 Felony)





• Two counts of Theft (Level 5 Felony)





• Two counts of Counterfeiting (Level 6 Felony)

Hundreds of thousands of dollars unaccounted for

On Aug. 20, 2024, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department began investigating a reported fraud at Heartland Community Church based in Lafayette.




The report was made by two employees who shared that the church's bank accounts were "drained of all funds" while some accounts had been overdrawn. They said they only learned of this when Wonnacott resigned in August 2024.




One of the employees stated that Wonnacott had allegedly admitted to him that she had taken funds from the church's bank accounts. Investigators determined that Wonnacott worked as an administrative assistant at the church between February 2020 and August 2024, which granted her access to all of the church's accounts at First Merchants Bank.




As part of their investigation, detectives sifted through computer records at the church which showed a computer program had been used to form fraudulent bank records at the church.




The two employees claimed Wonnacott would regularly take this computer home during her tenure working at the church.




Court documents revealed that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been transferred from the church's accounts to a personal PayPal account linked to Wonnacott over a four-year period between 2020 and 2024.




"HCC's bank records further showed Wonnacott had written personal checks from her personal
Industrial Federal Credit Union and Purdue Federal Credit Union to Heartland Community Church between May 2024 and August 2024," court documents said. "These checks were initially processed and were utilized by HCC for payroll and other legitimate HCC expenses, but the checks subsequently bounced, causing the HCC accounts to be overdrawn."




Investigators also uncovered evidence that Wonnacott had allegedly made multiple purchases on PayPal, Walmart.com, Amazon and Target with the church's bank accounts.




Wonnacott wrote checks from her personal bank accounts before placing money back into the church accounts, as she continued to allegedly siphon funds from the church. In an apparent attempt to throw other church employees off, court documents show she created fake bank statements to hide her actions.

House down payment, online shopping and vacations

The church accounts were eventually closed as a result of having a $0 balance as of August 2024. Wonnacott was alleged to have engaged in a "systematic pattern" which involved the transfer of funds from the church's "childcare" account and General fund and transferring the money to her personal PayPal account.




Court documents outlined how many of these personal purchases included down payments on two vehicles and a home, a surgery that was performed in Mexico, designer purses, vacations, two Apple tablets, jewelry, an Apple watch, vehicle payments and much more.




Wonnacott is accused of also using a $170,000 line of credit by using the forged signatures of four church employees.




The unauthorized purchases totaled more $250,000 between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. The following year, investigators reportedly determined that over $100,000 was missing from the church's accounts, alongside other miscellaneous expenditures ranging from $6,000 to $13,000 transactions.

Next steps

Online court records indicate that the court has set Wonnacott's bond at $10,000 cash and $100,000 surety. She is scheduled to appear in Tippecanoe Superior Court 1 on Dec. 1.





via: https://fox59.com/news/docs-ex-employee-stole-hundreds-of-thousands-from-lafayette-church/