Oklahoma City Church Administrator Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $451,000
An Oklahoma church administrator faces more than 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $450,000 from an Oklahoma City-area Catholic church.
Darla Bralley / Oklahoma County Detention Center
Darla Bralley, 58, of Newcastle, served as the payroll administrator for St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Del City from 2012 until early 2020. In that role, she had access to St. Paul’s operating account and online bank accounts and the authority to issue expense checks, prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma said in a news release.
At a plea hearing on Sept. 28, Bralley admitted that over the course of six years, starting in 2014, she issued approximately 198 unauthorized checks from the operating account as well as several transfers from St. Paul’s online account totaling approximately $451,200 to pay for various personal items and services, including credit card payments, utilities and living expenses.
In addition to admitting to the wire fraud, she acknowledged she had falsified her 2018 federal tax return by not reporting the extra income from the money she had embezzled, prosecutors said.
Bralley faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge and up to three years in prison for the tax charge.
This case is a result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the United States Secret Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Brown.
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