Daniel Meadows: Tennessee man accused of stealing $200K from church where he worked for 2 years
HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: Authorities said that a Tennessee man has been accused of stealing over $200,000 from a church over a two-year period. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation claimed in a press release that Daniel Meadows, 32, had access to the money at the Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville as part of his employment after conducting an investigation.
For two years, Meadows served as the church's executive assistant and campus operations specialist, according to FOX17 Nashville. As the organization looked into the alleged theft, the church made the announcement that he had been fired. Special agents began investigating on June 22 after the church reported that large sums of money had been stolen.
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"We’re writing to share some difficult news with you today. Less than two weeks ago, we discovered that one of our staff members (Daniel Meadows, a Campus Operations Specialist, and Executive Assistant) had been systematically abusing his access to church resources", a press release obtained by the station wrote. It further mentioned, "He was immediately terminated from our staff and an ongoing internal investigation has uncovered more than $100,000 in fraudulent and personal purchases using church accounts. Law enforcement has been informed, but the extent and full scope of this abuse has yet to be determined".
The investigation determined that Meadows had access to the church funds as part of his job and that he stole about $198,755, the report said, and has been devastating for the staff. "As you can imagine, this news has been devastating to our staff," the church said in a written statement obtained by the station. "We find ourselves seeking justice for the financial abuse that’s taken place, but also seeking mercy and healing for a brother who has fallen prey to sin. Join us in praying for Daniel and his family in the days ahead." Meadows was indicted on Dec. 2 on one count of theft of property. He was arrested Monday and booked into the Sumner County Jail on a $7,500 bond.
The statement reasoned that "we’re informing you of this today because we always want to be transparent with you. As a church staff, integrity is one of the most important values we have, and we take any breach of that trust seriously. Our staff has long been supervised by a system of yearly external audits and internal financial controls. It was one of these checks that helped our business operations team uncover this theft".