Driving his $62,000 Humvee and sporting his $2,200 wristwatch, Mark Jackson said he didn't need money from the Rev. Phillip Goudeaux or Sacramento's Calvary Christian Center.
His Covenant Broadcasting Network in Nashville, Tenn., was already worth millions, Jackson said. But if members wanted to invest, they had a one-time chance to serve a worthy cause while reaping a high rate of return.
But for CBN, the check was always in the mail, and any covenant Jackson and his wife had with anyone was broken. Goudeaux and his flock were fleeced of $620,000.
"I trusted these people with all my heart," Goudeaux said.
It is just one example of many throughout the nation of what authorities call "affinity fraud," in which con artists prey upon people's willingness to believe members of their same religious, ethnic, career or community-based group.
For Robert Graham of West Covina, it was a Sunday school teacher who ended up costing him $100,000, the bulk of his life savings.
[...]
Graham invested his money with the aptly named Affinity Associates, whose president is serving a 21-month federal mail fraud sentence for stealing $843,000 from 10 members of the Covina Assembly of God church. The Sunday school teacher has not been charged.
Religious appeals may be the most insidious of all, authorities say, based not on logic, but on faith faith in God, faith in the pastor, faith that a fellow believer can be trusted.
They're likely the nation's fastest growing and most lucrative rip-offs, according to the
North American Securities Administrators Association
.
"To say that it's exploded is an understatement," said NASAA's Ashley Baker.
In 1989, the association totaled up about $500 million in losses from religious affinity scams. Two current schemes the Baptist Foundation of Arizona and Florida's
Greater Ministries International have already eclipsed that figure, costing 40,000 investors nearly $1.3 billion.
In the last three years alone, 27 states have acted against religious scams that bilked more than 90,000 investors, the NASAA estimates.
[...]
Hollywood celebrities and Internet executives were among those enticed to invest more than $230 million with fellow
Church of Scientology member
Reed E. Slatkin of Santa Barbara, according to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
The commission alleged that between 1985 and April, Slatkin persuaded more than 500 people to invest in nonexistent Swiss securities trading accounts. The co-founder of Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. allegedly used later collections to pay off early investors.
One lawsuit alleges Slatkin was promising annual returns up to 60 percent at the same time the stock market was retrenching.
[...]
Goudeaux teaches a ministry of hope and
prosperity, that health and wealth come to those who follow God's word in the
Bible.
"God wants to prosper your life," he preached during a recent 2 1/2 hour Wednesday night service. "God has just given you an opportunity for promotion."
The church needs the money. In addition to its ministry costs, the congregation owes more than $1 million on a $5 million building loan.
In the Jacksons, Goudeaux and his Sacramento church thought they had a sure thing.
After all, the pastor had seen the fledgling Nashville station's success with his own eyes its state-of-the-art digital studio; its satellite broadcasting truck; the two tour buses "Pastor" Jackson and his wife, Lisa, would use to help spread the word of God.
The clincher: The station would broadcast Goudeaux' message twice daily, spreading his Faith Alive show that already appears in Hawaii, New Orleans, Atlanta and several California cities.
[...]
The stock turned out to be worthless. Covenant Broadcasting Network's expensive equipment was rented.
The Jacksons dropped out of sight until they were arrested and pleaded guilty in a California federal court in April to bilking church members in Sacramento and Nashville of a combined $1.2 million.
Mark Jackson, 41, was fined $60,000 and sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, while Lisa Jackson, 43, was fined $40,000 and sentenced to 21 months.
Now they face a 68-count Georgia indictment alleging an earlier scheme that defrauded residents there of hundreds of thousands of dollars, this one centered on the Better Covenant Christian Center.
And at the time of their arrest, they had a new project under way, according to court documents: a Seniors Broadcast Network for which they'd already collected $500,000 from an unsuspecting Florida couple.
[...more...]
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