Opinion ID: 6344487
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fraud on the Church

Text: Windle also defrauded his church. Windle and his family were parishioners at CCSD, and he became the volunteer treasurer of the church in 2003. As the treasurer, Windle oversaw and had signature authority over several of CCSD's bank accounts. Instead of closing certain of those accounts as directed, Windle kept them - 7 - open and used them to launder the money he stole from Cambium and the church. Between 2003 and 2005, Windle wrote himself and his wife collectively seven checks from CCSD's accounts for a total of approximately $278,250. He stole an additional approximately $434,000 from the church between December 2003 and January 2008 by withdrawing cash or writing checks to himself or to third parties. Windle took steps to conceal his fraud by fabricating monthly financial statements and annual reports. He submitted balance sheets that significantly overstated the amount of funds in the church's accounts. Windle also created phony audit report letters by fabricating the letterhead of an established Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm. He did this to convince CCSD's Board of Directors that the church's finances had been audited by independent CPAs, although they had not. Windle's schemes were uncovered in 2008. Law enforcement discovered that Windle had failed to report his fraud proceeds on his federal tax returns for the taxable years 2004 through 2007, and that he had prepared a fraudulent federal income tax return (Form 1040) for each year, which he filed electronically.2 2 Windle was convicted in 1997 of false claims, having electronically filed false U.S. Income Tax Returns (Forms 1040) for the 1993 and 1994 tax years based on fabricated W-2 Forms. - 8 - Windle served more than a decade in prison for these offenses. Within one year of his release in March 2020, Windle engaged in the following fraudulent conduct: