A former parish secretary and bookkeeper from DeSoto, Missouri, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for embezzling over $580,000 from her church. U.S. District Judge John A. Ross handed down the sentence on Friday and ordered Corie M. Boyer, 50, of Jefferson County, Missouri, to repay $581,337.
Boyer’s thefts occurred between 2017 and 2024 while she was responsible for managing the parish's financial records and organizing fundraisers. According to court documents, she misused parish credit cards intended for fundraising expenses, wrote checks to herself and cashed them, used parish bank accounts to pay her personal credit card balances, and stole cash donations from weekly collections. The stolen funds were used for gambling, a family vacation, shopping trips, paying taxes and rent, and funding a relative’s college tuition. Boyer concealed her actions by falsifying parish records.
“Corie Boyer betrayed her parish when she abused her position of trust for personal gain. She stole funds from the church, spent the money on herself and others, and took steps to cover up the theft,” said IRS-Criminal Investigation St. Louis Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “IRS-CI remains deeply committed to investigating such abuses of trust and will work with our law enforcement partners to relentlessly pursue justice on behalf of the victims.”
Boyer pleaded guilty in October in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to two counts of wire fraud.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and IRS - Criminal Investigation units. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.
