BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- A man accused of swindling a Nashville church out of more than $100,000 was arrested on Feb. 26 at a Brentwood motel.
According to the Tennessean, investigators with the Davidson County district attorney's office arrested Thomas Marvin Bell, 57, a former treasurer and elder at The Lord's Chapel.
Police said that between November 2000 and July 2002, Bell ran a check-cashing conversion scheme and also stole by getting the church to put money into a phony investment.
He is accused of writing checks to himself on church accounts above the amount needed to cover church bills, then pocketing the overage.
Police said he also persuaded members to get the church to place $50,000 in a phony offshore investment venture. He did this by making it appear he also had invested $250,000 of his own money in the venture.
