Denver Newsroom, Jun 24, 2021 / 17:00 pm
A man who allegedly stole more than $250,000 from Lubbock’s Christ the King Cathedral has been located in Colombia, and U.S. officials are seeking his return.
The suspect managed the cathedral’s donations and its Venmo and PayPal accounts. The cathedral rector was not implicated in the theft but resigned after its discovery.
Nathan Allen Webb, a cathedral parishioner, had assumed responsibilities at the cathedral that included managing donations and paying bills, in August 2019, according to Everything Lubbock. In March 2021, a lawyer for the Diocese of Lubbock “reported that Webb was engaged in a fraud scheme to embezzle money” from the cathedral, the FBI criminal complaint said.
Webb faces charges of wire fraud. Federal officials have asked the Colombian government to detain him through INTERPOL.
“Webb was embezzling thousands of dollars each month by making unauthorized transfers of money from (Christ the King’s) Venmo account to his personal Venmo account,” according to the FBI criminal complaint.
During at least part of this time, Webb was in South America.
In March, Father John Ohlig, rector of Christ the King Cathedral – as well as the parish finance committee – reportedly discovered funds were missing from the cathedral’s bank account and reported this to the diocese, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
“The FBI was notified immediately,” the Lubbock diocese said in a June 23 statement. “The parish and the diocese assisted the FBI in a thorough investigation since that time. The Diocese of Lubbock did not reveal the theft to preserve the integrity of the investigation.”
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