Eight people have been arrested in Manatee County, Florida, in a large-scale check-fraud investigation into donation checks that parishioners mailed to local churches and that investigators say were stolen and deposited into the suspects' own bank accounts instead, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office announced on Friday, November 6.
Source: Tampa Bay 28 (WFTS)
The Sheriff's Office Economic Crimes Unit says the scheme targeted at least 17 churches across the county between September 2025 and May 2026, and that more than 20 suspects were involved in the fraudulent activity overall. Seven more people are still wanted on active arrest warrants, so the arrest count is not final.
How the case began: a pastor noticed the mail had dropped
The investigation began in December 2025, after a pastor at Harvest United Methodist Church in Lakewood Ranch reported a significant decrease in the mail the church was receiving. Parishioners had begun questioning whether their monthly tithe checks had arrived at all.
Investigators later discovered that the checks had been stolen and deposited into suspects' bank accounts. According to the Sheriff's Office, the suspects deposited the stolen checks unaltered — the checks were not rewritten — into their personal bank accounts, and many of the deposits were made through mobile banking, which allowed the activity to go largely undetected for months.
That method explains why the scheme ran so long, officials said: parishioners believed their monthly contributions were reaching their intended churches, while the churches often had no reason to suspect that individual checks were missing.
Who has been arrested, and what they are charged with
The eight people arrested are Yucmercy Espinosa Obregon, Luis Miguel Sanchez Santos, Lisaida Castro Gonzalez, Ismery Ferrer Alonso, Luis Enrique Valdes Camejo, Dayanis Leon Hernandez, Duvier Hernandez Canizarez and Isidro Gonzalez Gomez, the Sheriff's Office said. The suspects face charges including organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, uttering a forged instrument and criminal use of personal identification. These are allegations: the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Source: Tampa Bay 28 (WFTS)
Detective Rachael Fossaceca of the Sheriff's Office said the suspects had no connection to the congregations they targeted. They were not parishioners and did not work for the churches — they simply targeted them, she said. Some of the accounts tied to the case held checks from churches in Manatee County, Tampa, Michigan and beyond.
Source: WCXS Classic Country 104.5 / WWSB ABC7 Sarasota reporting
A map much wider than one county
Inside Manatee County, detectives have so far identified 66 victims and 107 stolen checks, with confirmed losses of more than $72,000. An additional seven local victims and seven checks remain unconfirmed, representing another $1,800 in potential losses.
Outside the county, the investigation has identified 268 stolen checks and nearly $194,000 in confirmed losses — taking the confirmed total across the whole case to roughly $266,000, before any of the unconfirmed amounts are counted.
The joint investigation is being conducted with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, and it remains ongoing as detectives work to identify additional victims and additional people responsible.
Economic Crimes detectives hold active arrest warrants for seven additional people. Some of those wanted are believed to be in the Miami area, while at least one has been confirmed to be in Cuba, the Sheriff's Office said — a detail that may slow that part of the case considerably.
Investigators' practical advice from this case is simple: where you can, hand a donation directly to someone at the institution's office or use a secure drop box instead of an open mailbox, watch your bank account for whether donation checks clear to the right place, and tell the institution if a mailed check never shows up. A missing check is how this entire investigation started.
What happens next
The eight arrested defendants will move through the Florida courts on the fraud, theft and identification charges, while detectives continue tracing checks and accounts in and beyond Florida. The Sheriff's Office says this case is separate from other check-washing investigations, and the investigation is still active — more victims, and possibly more arrests, are expected as the seven outstanding warrants are worked through.
For religious congregations everywhere — churches in Florida, and equally the gurdwaras, temples and mosques whose members still donate by mailed check — the case is a plain warning: mailed donations are cash-like paper moving through open mailboxes, and a single pastor noticing that the mail had thinned out was all that stood between this scheme and many more months of silent losses.