Employee Steals from Church and Has to Answer to Higher Power and The IRS

Posted on October 11, 2021

The former head of construction and land management at the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida was sentenced to 33 months in prison for tax and wire fraud charges.

Charles Jon David was responsible for selling land owned by the church, and in 2013 sold a property to two individuals for well under market value. After the purchase was made David was paid $229,500 by the buyers, who later sold the property for a substantial profit.

On another occasion David arranged for the sale of another church property for $150,000, while already having another buyer lined up to buy the property from the first buyer for $250,000. Both transactions happened on the same day and David made $44,000 from this sale.

David failed to report any of this income on his tax returns. In addition to the 33 month prison sentence he was ordered to pay $273,000 to the Catholic Diocese and $111,000 in restitution to the IRS.