TOLEDO, Ohio – A 43-year-old woman has been sentenced to prison for embezzling money from a church where she was previously employed.Shenia Watson, aka Shenia Brown, of Toledo, Ohio, was sentenced to 40 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary, after she pleaded guilty in February to Wire Fraud, Access Device Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft. Judge Zouhary also ordered Watson to serve three years of supervised release and pay $410,574.39 in restitution.According to court documents, Watson was an employee of Perfecting Church in Toledo, Ohio. As a church employee, Watson was responsible for managing parishioner donations.
Investigators discovered that from about June 2019, to June of 2023, Watson used her position at the church to embezzle church funds from an app that was used to receive donations from parishioners. To conceal her embezzlement activities, Watson knowingly provided the board of directors with fraudulent monthly financial summary reports. Additionally, Watson secured a credit card in the name of the church’s pastor and used it to pay church expenses to conceal its true financial condition and to conceal her embezzlement activities.This case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Dexter Phillips led the prosecution.