By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, April 15, 2026

An independent investigation conducted by global law firm Dentons has cleared founding pastors of Fount Church in New York City, Josh Kelsey and his wife, Georgie, of allegations that they racked up $1.4 million in transactions on a church credit card after a former board member made that claim based on "fundamentally flawed" information, the church’s board of directors has announced.

The announcement came in a 7-page statement from the church’s board sent to the Fount Church NYC community and published by founttransparency.org. The Christian Post reached out to Fount Church NYC for comment and independent verification of the statement, and officials responded with a statement confirming the authenticity of the comprehensive report.

The Fount Church NYC board noted that the forensic accounting review was led by a CPA who is a former FBI special agent with two decades of experience investigating complex financial fraud “at the highest levels of government and industry.”

“An exhaustive forensic investigation spanning eight years of financial records has found no evidence of fraud, embezzlement, or misappropriation of funds by Fount Church New York lead pastors Josh and Georgie Kelsey,” the press statement from the church declared while noting that the investigation led by global law firm Dentons reviewed more than 11,000 individual credit card transactions spanning eight years.

“The review has concluded clearly that there isn’t a trace of evidence of fraud, misappropriation of funds or embezzlement on the part of Pastors Josh and Georgie Kelsey or any other party,” chairman of the church’s board, Frank Wheatley, said. “The report on which the original allegations were made has been exposed as fundamentally flawed. The former board member who raised the allegations personally created a spreadsheet assigning his own categorizations for expenses without any reference to the Church’s accounting system.”

Church officials previously told CP that the collective $1.4 million in AMEX charges attributed to the Kelseys from October 2017 to 2025 were all “approved by the accounts team.” In the March 30 statement attributed to the Fount Church NYC board, however, officials now say, “The allegation that $1.4 million was spent by Josh and Georgie Kelsey across a nine-year period is wholly false.”

“The Church credit cards were used across all departments of Fount Church and by multiple staff members and volunteers throughout the nine-year period, not just Pastors Josh and Georgie. These cards processed expenses for every area of Church operations, including C3 Global annual levies and all-staff travel to conferences and ministry events, as well as all Vision Builders expenses, including Fundraising Gala expenses for church-wide events,” the Fount Church NYC Board led by President Frank Wheatley states. “The $1.4 million represents Church-wide expenditure, not a figure attributable to spending by the Lead Pastors.”

The church noted that the lead attorney from Dentons previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and “has direct experience in church leadership.”

Fount Transparency, a watchdog group formed by former members of the church who had raised concerns about the church's governance, identified the attorney as experienced trial lawyer Trinity Jordan. His bio on the Dentons website cites his DOJ experience and notes that he “spent nearly a decade as lead pastor at Elevation Church in Layton, Utah.” They also argue that his role in the investigation presents a conflict of interest.

“He is a ‘pastor-attorney’ who specializes in providing ‘creative solutions’ for churches facing legal and financial crises, according to his own bio. His service is to ‘resolve the issue with zealous advocacy’ rather than independently investigate and hold another pastor accountable,” the advocacy group argued.

“This undermines the Fount's claim that the investigation was ‘independent.’ Rather, it was an investigation performed by a man whose entire career is built on the success of the church-planting industry having deep vested interest as an author, trainer, and advocate of the model used by Fount, which he was tasked with investigating.”

For its part, the Fount Church NYC board further noted that, “After a comprehensive review of more than 11,000 transactions over a nine-year period and all available evidence, the independent investigation concluded that there is no evidence of fraud, embezzlement, or intentional misappropriation of Church funds by either Pastor Josh or Pastor Georgie,” the board states.

“The allegation that Pastor Josh and Pastor Georgie deliberately stole from this church is not supported by the evidence. The forensic record shows that their transactions were processed through a functioning, documented finance system; and that inadvertent charges by Church staff were regularly identified, invoiced, and usually reimbursed; and that written correspondence documented legitimate ministry purposes for the vast majority of transactions reviewed.”

The Dentons investigation found that 81% or $1,137,768 of the $1.4 million the Kelsey’s were accused of spending are connected to legitimate church business expenses.

“This includes business software (Slack, Google Suite, and other operational tools), music equipment and worship production equipment, venue fees, and ministry travel with documented purposes, pastoral hospitality meals, church supplies and encompasses expenses that former Board members confirmed were expressly Board-approved,” the church board states.

Another 15% or $214,277 of the expenses required analysis, while less than 1% or $12,545 “could not be fully documented within the engagement's scope.”

A CapinCrouse financial review of the $1.4 million in credit card expenses submitted to church officials last November had claimed that $483,861.40 “could be considered legitimate business expenses if there were sufficient documentation and approval by an unrelated board member.”

More than $900,000 of the expense could not be verified in the CapinCrouse financial review. The review highlighted various expenses, including more than $9,000 for surfing, over $6,500 for golf, and more than $118,000 for food, including over $7,700 on groceries.

Some $65,000 was charged to the credit card over the period, including $49,000 for therapy, $6,000 for supplements, $2,000 for haircuts and $1,665 for spa treatments.

The Fount Church NYC board argues in their March statement that David Chan, a former board member, initiated the CapinCrouse review without the blessing of the church after they failed to mutually resolve concerns over the transactions.

“The Board soon discovered that the document of transactions shared with CapinCrouse, which was the foundation for their initial memo, was created by David, with his assigned categorizations for expense categories instead of the church’s reconciliation documents,” the board states. “CapinCrouse was then hired by David to perform a cursory review of his Excel spreadsheet and write a preliminary memo based on the limited information provided to them, without the Church’s involvement.”

The review found that all staff, including the Kelseys, were regularly invoiced and made reimbursements for non-church-related expenses, but some payments were missed inadvertently. Josh Kelsey was found to have racked up some $31,852 in personal expenses, and he has already reimbursed the church.

“The forensic investigators found no evidence that these missed reimbursements were deliberate, concluding instead that they reflect the same consistent documentation failures that affected all staff during this period,” the Fount Church NYC board explains.

After proper reconciliation, the Fount Church NYC board said the controversy over the church's finances was created by “inadequate policies, documentation failures, governance deficiencies, and tax classification errors,” and they have already started addressing those concerns.

“Effective January 12, 2026, the Board was reconstituted under the chairmanship of Frank Wheatley with independent membership. All executive spending is now subject to review and approval by independent Board members,” church officials state.

They are also working with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability to conduct certified financial audits annually, beginning with the most recent fiscal year. New bylaws compliant with New York State Religious Corporations Law are also being worked on for member review and ratification, among other things.

“We recognize that the past months have been deeply painful for Pastor Josh and Pastor Georgie personally, professionally, and socially, and also for the members of this congregation. In light of the public nature of the allegations, Fount church has been significantly reduced in both members and giving,” the board further highlights in their statement. “Following the conclusion of the investigation, the Board made repeated good faith efforts to share its findings with David Chan and to pursue a collaborative resolution. Those efforts were not reciprocated. We note this because the congregation deserves to know that the Board pursued every reasonable avenue toward unity before issuing this statement.”

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/fount-church-nyc-pastors-did-not-engage-in-fraud-report.html