Bookkeeper sentenced to 33 months in prison for embezzling $580,000 from church

Date: March 6, 2026

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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 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.

"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.

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

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.