An administrative assistant stole US$300,000 from an Alabama church and used the money to send gifts to TikTok creators, federal officials said.

Kristen Battocletti has now pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, according to a July 17 court filing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

McClatchy News reached out to Battocletti’s attorney for comment but did not immediately receive a response July 19.

As an administrative assistant at St. Francis of Assisi University Parish, Battocletti was responsible for bookkeeping and had access to the church’s Mastercard, according to a plea agreement.

Starting around April 2023, Battocletti began using the Mastercard to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases for her own personal reasons, federal officials said.

She used more than US$220,000 of stolen funds from the Tuscaloosa Catholic church to buy TikTok Coins, which are digital gifts for creators that can eventually be converted into money, officials said in an information filing. Prosecutors didn’t say what kind of accounts she was sending the gifts to.

Battocletti is accused of making more than 429 transactions to buy TikTok Coins using the church’s card linked to her CashApp and Apple Pay accounts. Investigators also said she used some of the money on expenses such as her car insurance.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham began investigating, and in October, they interviewed Battocletti. She said she stole at least US$70,000 each month from the church from June to August, federal officials said.

“She also acknowledged that she knew this was theft and recognised that she could get in serious trouble for her misconduct,” officials wrote in the plea agreement.

The church fired her after the interview.

As part of the plea agreement, Battocletti agrees to pay at least US$299,343 in restitution.

Tuscaloosa is in western Alabama, about a 60-mile drive southwest from Birmingham.

 - TNS