A former senior pastor of Tulsa's historic Vernon AME Church has pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud and tax evasion charges after embezzling more than $504,000 from the congregation, spending the stolen money on personal expenses, gambling, and firearms. Rev. Keith Rydell Mayes, Sr. admitted to running the scheme between March 2022 and November 2025, according to the Justice Department.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the largest single theft stemmed from stock transfers made in 2021 and 2022. Mayes set up a new brokerage account in the church's name, received $365,000 in stock transfers, liquidated the shares, and diverted most of the proceeds to himself, prosecutors say. As reported by FBI Oklahoma City
, Mayes has now pleaded guilty to both federal bank fraud charges and federal tax evasion charges.
A Hidden Account With His Own Address
A separate bank account named Administrative Expenses listed Mayes as the sole authorized signer and his own personal residence as the account's mailing address. Donations from church members and charitable groups were then directed into that off-books account, according to the department's release, effectively intercepting funds before church leadership ever saw them.
Mayes had come to Tulsa from South Carolina to succeed Reverend Robert Turner, who left Vernon AME to accept a pastoral position in Baltimore, per KTUL. Vernon parishioners had asked the city to provide reparations, and Turner's departure marked a leadership transition at one of Greenwood's most closely watched institutions.
The Only Surviving Basement From 1921
Vernon AME Church, founded in 1905 in Tulsa's Greenwood District, holds a singular place in the city's history. The church is the only Black-owned structure in the area whose original basement survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, where parishioners and community members hid from white violence, according to the National Fund for Sacred Places. The upper sanctuary was destroyed during the massacre and rebuilt years later. The church was erected in 1925, and GH2 Architects notes that church members etched donor names into stained-glass windows.
The embezzlement scheme unfolded even as the church pursued a major preservation effort. In February 2026, Vernon AME unveiled The Vernon Witness, a multi-year project supported by $1.5 million from the Mellon Foundation to preserve the historic basement and turn it into a museum and cultural center housing more than 5,000 artifacts, according to the Oklahoma Eagle. That initiative was spearheaded by descendants of massacre survivors, the outlet reports.
Restitution and Potential Prison Time
Under the terms of Mayes's federal plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit all firearms and ammunition purchased with the fraudulent funds and to pay $504,313.88 in total restitution, including $205,765.60 to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid taxes, the Justice Department says. Mayes had failed to report any of the embezzled income on his federal tax returns, according to the same release.
Federal bank fraud is addressed under 18 U.S.C. § 1344, according to the Federal Reserve. Separately, federal tax evasion charges under 26 U.S.C. § 7201 were handled by the IRS Criminal Investigation division, according to McCauley Law Offices. Mayes's exact term will be determined at sentencing.
