Tennessee church theft: $350,000 came out at $3,241 a month

A Williamson County grand jury indicted Paul Leo Tremblay, 58, on 3 September on one felony count of theft of property valued at $250,000 or more, the Daily Hodl reports. He worked at Southall Church in Franklin, Tennessee, from 2017 through 2025, and his last title there was financial stewardship pastor.

“Tremblay allegedly took the funds for personal benefit during his nine years of employment.”

— Williamson County Sheriff's Office, Statement reported by WSMV, 11 September 2026

Williamson County Sheriff's Office, quoted by WSMV on 11 September 2026

The rate, not the amount

Split $350,000 across nine years and it comes to $38,889 a year, or $3,241 a month. Nothing about that resembles a heist. It is a leak the size of a modest second salary, and it ran through roughly 108 monthly closes and nine annual budgets without anyone stopping it. The person who would ordinarily notice held the title that describes noticing.

What the public record does not say is the more interesting half. The sheriff's office has not described how the money left, what it paid for beyond personal benefit, or whether any of it has come back. Southall Church, formerly Grace Chapel, has issued no statement. No attorney has been named for Tremblay. The church's staff page no longer lists the role he held.

Tennessee church theft: what the charge carries

Theft of $250,000 or more is a Class A felony in Tennessee. A standard-range offender faces 15 to 60 years and a fine capped at $50,000, which is 14.3% of the sum in the indictment. Bond came in at $75,000, or 21.4% of it. Deputies arrested Tremblay on 10 September and booked him into the Williamson County Criminal Justice Center, and he is due in Williamson County Circuit Court on 30 September.

The dates are worth lining up. Church staff went to the sheriff's office in August 2025, the grand jury acted on 3 September 2026, and the arrest followed seven days after that. From the first internal alarm to a charge, 384 days passed. From a charge to handcuffs, a week. His employment ran through 2025, the same year the church went to the sheriff, so the alarm and the end of his time there fall inside the same twelve months. Nothing published says which came first, and that ordering is the part a congregation would want.

Why this belongs on a crypto desk

Nothing here is sophisticated, and that is the point for anyone holding funds on behalf of other people. The Arizona case we covered ran the same way: the rent rolls did the work, not the headline pandemic loans. The Connecticut forgery cost $33,000 and took twelve weeks and four agencies to unwind. A treasury with one signer, no outside review and a trusted incumbent has this exposure whatever it holds, and a crypto wallet removes the one safeguard a bank still offers, which is somebody else looking at the statement.

Informational material. The charge is an allegation, and Tremblay has not been convicted of anything.