An Alabama woman has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after being accused of stealing $300,000 from a Catholic church where she served as an administrative assistant. Kristen Marie Battocletti, 35, is said to have made more than 600 unauthorized transactions over a seven-month period in 2023.
According to The Washington Post, Battocletti spent more than $220,000 of funds from St. Francis of Assisi University Parish in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on TikTok coins, a digital currency used to send gifts to TikTok creators.
The remaining $80,000 was spent on personal expenses, such as car insurance payments.
Battocletti spent nearly $70,000 on TikTok coins in June 2023, roughly $105,000 in July 2023, and about $75,000 in August 2023.
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Battocletti had been responsible for bookkeeping at the parish and had been working there since 2018. As the bookkeeper, Battocletti had access to the church’s Mastercard, which she linked to her Apple Pay and CashApp accounts on her phone.
Battocletti used at least 370 of the unauthorized transactions to buy TikTok coins. She also made 60 CashApp transactions with the church’s card.
Donald Carson, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, told The Washington Post that Barttocletti was caught after the church’s pastor and finance council began to notice missing funds and launched an internal review.
“It’s tough when a member of your family, so to speak, makes decisions that are not in your best interest or in her own,” Carson said. “Our concern, at this point, is really to pray for her and her family, and her best outcome and recovery through all of this.”
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According to USA TODAY, Battocletti admitted during an interview with officials from the diocese that she had misappropriated the funds and acknowledged that she “knew this was theft and recognized that she could get in serious trouble for her misconduct.”
