Bookkeeper Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison for Embezzling $580,000 From Church

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge John A. Ross on Friday sentenced the former parish secretary and bookkeeper who embezzled from a DeSoto, Missouri church to 33 months in prison and ordered her to repay $581,337.

Corie M. Boyer, 50, of Jefferson County, Missouri, stole the funds from the parish in multiple ways from 2017 to 2024, while she was responsible for maintaining the parish's books and records, organizing certain parish fundraisers and assisting in the collection and counting of the weekly offertory. She misused parish credit cards that were intended for fundraising expenses, wrote parish checks to herself and cashed them, used parish bank accounts to pay down the balance on her personal credit cards and stole parishioners' cash donations from the weekly offertory. She gambled some of the money away and used more to pay for a family vacation, go shopping, pay her taxes and rent and fund a relative's college tuition. Boyer covered up the theft by falsifying parish records.

Boyer pleaded guilty in October in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two counts of wire fraud.

The FBI and IRS - Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.