{"id":199475,"date":"2026-04-16T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/199475\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:40:09","slug":"ex-board-member-nabbed-for-pilfering-nearly-4-million-in-donations-from-manhattan-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/199475\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-board member nabbed for pilfering nearly $4 million in donations from Manhattan church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"a\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Swedish Church of New York in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Google maps<\/p>\n

A Manhattan church-goer ignored \u201cThou shall not steal\u201d to commit his own dirty deeds when he allegedly stole over $3.8 million dollars from a borough house of worship over the course of six years, the NYS Attorney General\u2019s Office (OAG)<\/a> announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Olof Olsson, 45, of Manhattan, was indicted for allegedly stealing more than $3.8 million from the borough-based Swedish Church of New York<\/a> \u2014 also known as the Swedish Seamen\u2019s Church \u2014 while he served as a board member and financial advisor to the institution<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a licensed securities broker and board member who lived at the church, Olsson was responsible for safeguarding donations and bequests. But an OAG probe found that the defendant abused his position and funneled the church\u2019s money into bank accounts he controlled, and then spent the funds on \u201crisky investments and personal expenses,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The 24-count indictment, unsealed in New York County Supreme Court before Judge Althea Drysdale, charged Olsson with stealing at least $3.8 million from the church starting in 2018 through 2025. He faces a list of charges including first- and second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and first-degree falsifying business records.<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE PHOTO: New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks to the media after she pleaded not guilty to charges that she defrauded her mortgage lender, outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S., October 24, 2025. REUTERS\/Jonathan Ernst\/File Photo<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen churchgoers donate money, they expect their generous contributions will be used to support their church and its mission,\u201d Attorney General Letitia James said. \u201cOlof Olsson took advantage of his role as a trusted member of the Swedish Church of New York to steal millions of dollars from his fellow churchgoers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olsson served on the church board from 2016 to 2023 while working as a securities broker managing its assets and donations. According to the OAG, he took millions by making unauthorized transfers to an account he controlled and hiding the misconduct with forged financial statements to mislead the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The OAG opened an investigation into Olsson in December 2025 after uncovering evidence of wrongdoing. The probe found that between July 2018 and December 2025, he allegedly engaged in an elaborate scheme to forge account statements from several major financial institutions where the church had invested its money. He allegedly used the stolen funds for personal expenses, including an \u201cinvestment in a risky and failed venture,\u201d according to the investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olsson faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted of the top charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Swedish Church of New York in Manhattan. Google maps A Manhattan church-goer ignored \u201cThou shall not steal\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2710,398,75,84,83,9,24,63,646,79308,797],"class_list":{"0":"post-199475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-law","9":"tag-letitia-james","10":"tag-manhattan","11":"tag-manhattan-headlines","12":"tag-manhattan-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-police-and-fire","17":"tag-swedish-church-of-new-york","18":"tag-theft"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}