Lubbock man sentenced for embezzling more than a quarter million dollars from church

A former Christ the King Cathedral Parish employee was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in federal prison for embezzling more than a quarter million dollars of church funds.

U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix handed 43-year-old Nathan Allan Webb a 51-month sentence after sentencing hearing. He is ordered to pay $261,440.20 in restitution with $50,000 going to the Lubbock Diocese and the rest to the church's insurer. Hendrix ordered that the Diocese be paid first.

"You're a thief," U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix told Nathan Webb, 43. "Again and again and again you stole from your own church."

Webb faced up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in February to a count of wire fraud. He initially faced four counts of wire fraud but as part of his plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office, three counts were dismissed.

More: Ex-Christ the King Cathedral employee facing federal wire fraud charges arraigned in Lubbock

However, a sentencing guideline that factored in the nature of the offense and Webb's criminal history suggested to the court that a sentence between 41 to 51 months was appropriate.

Webb admitted to using internet-based money transfer services to funnel $261,440.20  of the Christ the King Cathedral's money into his personal accounts.

The charge against Webb stems from an FBI investigation that began in March 2021 after parish rector Father John Ohlig and the parish's finance committee discovered thousands of dollars meant for the church was moved to Webb's accounts.

The Diocese of Lubbock officials said the parish and the diocese assisted the FBI's investigation when the theft was discovered, but did not publicly disclose it to protect the integrity of the investigation.

"The cathedral and the Diocese of Lubbock are working with a third-party finance firm to continue a thorough examination of the parish financial records and to assist in constructing enhanced accounting procedures," according to the statement the diocese released in June. "Changes in office management have also been made."

A criminal complaint states Webb was hired in August 2019 to manage the parish's Paypal and Venmo online payment service accounts that were used to collect donations from parishioners. It was part of Webb's job to move money from those services into the church's bank account.

However, a review of the church's Paypal and Venmo accounts showed that Webb was embezzling thousands of dollars a month into his personal accounts.

Webb is accused of stealing about $6,200 of the church's money in January. Between Feb. 27 to March 2, while Webb was in Colombia, he reportedly moved about $10,500 of the church's money into his own accounts, the documents state.

Investigators found that Webb admitted to stole more than $260,000 from the church via 232 unauthorized transfers.

On March 3, 2021 Ohlig confronted Webb about the theft and Webb's personal Paypal account was closed, the complaint states.

According to court documents, a warrant for Webb's arrest was issued on June 10. At the time Webb was in Colombia and FBI agents expected him to fly out of Cartegena, Colombia, and surrender to authorities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Instead, Webb went 500 miles across the country to Pereira, Colombia, where he was arrested for staying in the country with an expired visa.

Defense attorney Wade Iverson told the court his client's decision not to board the flight was a moment of "panic."

He said once he was arrested, Webb fully cooperated with law enforcement and signed a voluntary deportation agreement with the Columbian government.

Federal prosecutor Ann Howey told the court that Webb's actions not boarding the flight was a calculated move to obstruct justice.

"He knew for quite some time the FBI was investigating his crime," she said. "He had quite a bit of time to think about this."

She said once Webb was arrested by the Columbian government for the expired visa, the Department of Justice and the Department of State worked together to come up with a way to get Webb back to the U.S. She said their efforts resulted with Webb signing a voluntary deportation agreement.

"The U.S. is the one who facilitated that deportation," she said. "It took effort on our part to extract a U.S. citizen."

As Iverson argued for a sentence in the lower range of the guideline he told the court that his client told him that his crime started when he accidentally transferred the church's money to his account. But when no one caught him he continued stealing from the church, taking advantage of the lack of oversight.

"He allowed that to spiral," Iverson said. "Greed took over."

That statement caught the court and prosecutors by surprise because it was inconsistent with the factual resume Webb signed that stated he devised the scheme in September 2019, about a month after he was hired by the church, to steal the parishioner's donations.

Records show that in Sept. 19, 2019, Webb transferred $1,100 meant for the church to his Paypal account.

However, Hendrix said he didn't believe that Webb's first Paypal transfer to his account was a mistake, saying the technology Paypal uses wouldn't allow it.

"I find that hard to believe," he said.

He told Iverson that he was considering removing an acceptance of responsibility category that reduced Webb's sentence because it now appeared that Webb was partly taking responsibility.

Iverson told the court he regretted bringing up his client's comment saying it was an off-hand comment that surfaced during a casual conversation and was not an instruction from Webb to bring up during the sentencing hearing.

Iverson said his client was remorseful, took full responsibility for his actions and regrets the shame he's brought upon his family who attend the church.

Dozens of church members came to the hearing in support of Webb. However, none of them were called to testify on his behalf.

Webb addressed the court and apologized for his actions and for the shame and embarrassment he caused his family.

"My actions were deplorable and I hove no excuse for them," he said.

He said he was grateful for the support from his church and hopes to be able to heal the wounds he inflicted and atone for his crime.

Howey asked the court for a sentence that would reflect the seriousness of Webb's actions and deter other people from committing the same crime.

"Society has a strong interest in deterring these crimes," she said.

Howey said the evidence showed that Webb hid his theft by altering bank statements he presented to the church's finance committee to make it appear that the money was going to the church's bank accounts.

"They didn't realize it for 18 months because he used those means," she said.

She said Webb, who speaks three languages, is intelligent, articulate and educated. However, his history showed he is resistant to honest work.

She said his employment records show he's had five jobs in the last 12 years and worked 56 months in that time. The longest job he held was for about two years.

Howey said in his last job, Webb stole a laptop and persuaded his colleagues to buy him a plane ticket after the company had already paid for one.

Then in 2017, Howey said Webb, who has no previous convictions, stole from his father, who was recovering from a medical condition. She said Webb admitted to using his father's credit cards and ID without permission to open a Verizon account and used his father's social security number to open three credit cards.

She said the church's parishioners were also the victims of Webb's greed.

"It was their money he took," she said.

Hendrix told Webb that he would not pull the acceptance of responsibility reduction from his case and would give him the benefit of the doubt that his statements to Iverson may have been a way of diminishing his shame.

"Which I don't think you deserve," Hendrix told Webb.

He told Webb that he abused the trust the church gave him to steal from parishioners who were giving money as an expression of their faith.

"You abused that," Hendrix told Webb.

He said none of the evidence showed that he acted in desperation.

"All this was driven by your own greed," he said. "You only stopped when you were caught and when you were caught you ran."

Victor H. Wanjura III, an attorney for the Diocese of Lubbock said the diocese and Christ the King Cathedral parish are grateful to the FBI for their professionalism and their attention to this case.

"Likewise, the Diocese and the parish are grateful that justice has been served in accordance with the rule of law," Wanjura said in a statement. "Hopefully, with this unfortunate situation behind it, Christ the King Cathedral parish can continue its mission of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock man sentenced to federal prison for embezzling from church