Huntington Beach man, a former church chairman, charged with stealing $11.4 million from church assets

A Huntington Beach man has been charged with stealing more than $11 million from the church he previously worked for and using the money to buy a $2-million home and membership to Disneyland’s exclusive dining club, where he hosted professional sports teams and other high-profile guests.

Charles Thomas Sebesta, 54, was arrested Monday on a federal grand jury indictment charging him with 13 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identify theft in connection with crimes allegedly committed against his former employer, Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, Los Angeles, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

All told, federal prosecutors allege Sebesta stole $11,438,213 from church assets and $34,032 from a private high school that also employed him.

Sebesta was hired as the church’s facilities manager in 2001. He joined the church four years later and served as the local chairman, which gave him control over the church’s finances — including at least five of its bank accounts, prosecutors said.

Sebesta is accused of recording draws from church coffers as “donations” and payments to fictitious companies, and prosecutors allege he forged a church member’s signature and made up email addresses to carry out the scheme.

For at least 10 years, the U.S. attorney’s office alleges, Sebesta funneled checks from the church to fake companies’ bank accounts he had opened, as well as to himself and his family members.

“To further conceal these payments, Sebesta allegedly forged a church member’s signature on numerous checks drawn against the church’s bank accounts,” the office said in a statement.

When the church sold a Hollywood property in 2008, prosecutors allege, Sebesta used a “significant majority” of the proceeds from the transaction, which he oversaw, for his personal use — including buying a $2-million home.

In June 2010, Sebesta bought a membership at Disneyland’s Club 33 with church funds, prosecutors say.

Between 2009 and 2010, the indictment alleges, Sebesta wired more than $3 million in church funds to his personal tax accounts to generate overpayment refunds to himself.

If convicted as charged, Sebesta could face a statutory maximum sentence of more than 250 years in federal prison.

In 2014, Sebesta and another man were charged with grand theft on allegations of diverting $177,942 from the Catholic missionary group Lay Mission-Helpers Assn. to a bank account in the name of Sebesta’s son. The two pleaded not guilty but agreed to an $869,000 civil settlement.

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