I was hired as a bookkeeper at a church. Their accounts had not been reconciled in over 3 years. As I began to reconcile, I immediately noticed some red flags. For the past 8 years, the pastor and only the pastor, was in charge of the accounts. Their were many transfers from the church account to his personal account, which he always had an excuse for but could never provide a receipt. The preschool’s FICA taxes went unpaid for over a year even though the money was withheld from the employees paycheck. I could only do so much with the IRS to avoid an audit. He promised we would pay it with an incoming check for $11,000+ from a preschool program. Guess what? The money came in and he withdrew $10,000 from that money because, according to him, “the congregation wanted him to get a new car” so he got himself a new Mercedes by trading his old one in, putting down $10,000 cash, and charging $7,000 to the church credit card. Then he had the nerve to ask me to hold my measly $400+ paycheck until Thursday to cash it. I left that day, cashed my check and never returned.