Daniel Meadows: Tennessee man charged with stealing $200K from church where he worked for 2 years

According to the authorities, a Tennessee man has been charged for stealing more than $200,000 from a church over the course of two years. Following an inquiry, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation asserted in a press statement that Daniel Meadows, 32, had access to the money at Hendersonville's Long Hollow Church as part of his work. According to FOX17 Nashville, Meadows worked for the church for two years as the executive assistant and campus operations specialist. The church announced that he had been sacked while the company investigated the suspected embezzlement. On June 22, after the church reported that substantial sums of money had been stolen, special agents started an investigation. "We’re writing to share some difficult news with you today. Less than two weeks ago, we discovered that one of our staff members (Daniel Meadows, a Campus Operations Specialist, and Executive Assistant) had been systematically abusing his access to church resources", a press release obtained by the station wrote. It further mentioned, "He was immediately terminated from our staff and an ongoing internal investigation has uncovered more than $100,000 in fraudulent and personal purchases using church accounts. Law enforcement has been informed, but the extent and full scope of this abuse has yet to be determined". According to the report, the inquiry revealed that Meadows had access to church finances as part of his duties and that he stole roughly $198,755, which had a terrible impact on the personnel. According to a written statement from the church that the station was able to get, "as you may guess, this news has been upsetting to our personnel." "In addition to seeking mercy and healing for a brother who has succumbed to sin, we find ourselves seeking justice for the financial abuse that has occurred. Pray with us for Daniel and his family in the coming days." On December 2, Meadows was charged with one count of theft of property. He was taken into custody on Monday and lodged in the Sumner County Jail with a bond of $7,500. The statement reasoned that "we’re informing you of this today because we always want to be transparent with you. As a church staff, integrity is one of the most important values we have, and we take any breach of that trust seriously. Our staff has long been supervised by a system of yearly external audits and internal financial controls. It was one of these checks that helped our business operations team uncover this theft".