Federal prosecutors say a former Church of God communications director swindled $100,000 from church coffers while working at the denomination’s international headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn.
In court documents filed Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Brooks alleged that Troy Scot Carter stole from the church by creating false invoices for audiovisual services for which the church did not owe. Officials said Carter was employed at the church from 2004 to 2013, though church leaders said no former or current elected church officials had any knowledge of his crime.
Brooks alleges that Carter’s own production company, without church knowledge, obtained a contract to provide audiovisual services for the 2010 Empowered 21 conference at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla. Carter’s firm then subcontracted the actual work out to Indiana company Majestic Productions. Carter was to be paid $44,520 and Majestic agreed to be paid $166,900 for the work.
But Carter only paid Majestic $66,900 — not the $166,900 he owed them, court records allege. In order to pay the remaining $100,000 he owed, Carter submitted a false bill to the Church of God purporting to be for a down payment owed to Majestic for work it intended to do for the church.
“In fact, Majestic was to perform services for the Church of God in 2010, but did not require this down payment and the $100,000 never became part of Majestic’s actual bill,” court papers say.