Trinity Foundation doesn’t normally report on the more salacious side of televangelism, be it Christianity, pseudo-Christianity, or Islam for that matter. There is more than enough corruption stemming from dark money swishing around in religious organizations (see our “Dark Money…” article). We urge donors to follow the money, but when that’s not possible, follow the scandal.
A huge amount of sexual abuse and sex-trafficking is flying under the radar shielded by government agencies that fail to provide adequate oversight, abusive non-disclosure agreements and threats to fire employees that speak out, and by other means.
Church leaders operating with dictatorial powers, and not in humility, pressure followers for sexual favors. Consider the following examples:
Tony Alamo
Susan and Tony Alamo, PHOTO: GILBERT B. WEINGOURT/ZUMA PRESS/, From a Wall Street Journal article titled “‘Ministry of Evil: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo’ Review: Hell on Earth” by Dorothy Rabinowitz
Some televangelists never seem to go away, even after their death. The late convicted serial statutory rapist and tax evader Tony Alamo is back on television here in the U.S. on media owner Kevin Adell’s religious TV channel “Word Network Church” up to four times weekly.
Alamo passed away on May 2, 2017, while in federal custody.
In 2009, Alamo began serving a 175-year prison sentence in Tucson after being convicted on 10 counts of sex trafficking minors—transporting underage girls across state lines for sex.
A little background: Though many celebrities such as Johnny Cash, Black Sabbath, and the cast of TV’s Dallas wore jackets purchased from his Nashville country and western clothing store, his organization, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, was widely regarded as a cult.
His followers worked in Alamo’s many businesses for almost nothing aside from the food they ate. In 1982 Alamo, who was married at least six times, held a vigil over his wife Susan’s dead body for months, hoping to resurrect her from the dead.
In 1976, the US Department of Labor brought charges against Alamo for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. He lost the suit and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 and the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of his church retroactively for a prior 4-year period.
However, Alamo’s lawyers fought the IRS ruling in the courts for seven years until 1992 when Special Trial Judge Larry L. Nameroff ruled that the organization during the period in question was essentially “operated for Tony’s and Susan’s private benefit.” From 1994 to 1998, Alamo served four years in prison for income-tax evasion. He later claimed he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel.
So now, the creepy dead guy is back… on a creepy religious TV network!!
Word Network Church—Kevin Adell’s purported “Christian” TV network has faced its own legal troubles. Its tax-exemption was revoked by the IRS in March 2015 retroactive to 2007. Adell was paid an average yearly salary of $5.4 million from 2008 to 2011. When the TV network realized it was in trouble in 2013, they created a backup plan that went into effect as soon as the revocation took effect—they became a church… Church of the Word, a/k/a Word Network Church—the perfect vehicle to hide its profit motives.
Convicted child-molester Naasón Joaquín García (N.J.G.) still leads the multi-million-member Mexico-based La Luz Del Mundo (LLDM) church from within prison walls here in the U.S. N.J.G is believed to be the “Elect” one to connect church members to God. He is facing sixteen more years in prison and a possibility of more federal charges—read our March article here.
The U.S. is home to many dozens and perhaps hundreds of LLDM churches, with 35 in Texas alone.
(Photo: Before his imprisonment for sex crimes, Naasón Joaquín García preached to large audiences in the United States, Mexico and in Central America.)
By Pete Evans, with Luís Treviño
A moment in time: A warm Sunday morning, spring, 2019.
We (Luis and Pete) go to a Dallas church and realize it’s far from your “normal” sanctuary. We are ushered into a temple and amidst the expensive architecture—probably worth millions, we immediately notice a gilded, velvet-covered throne front and center-stage, raised up several steps as if it were a true king’s throne. On the throne are emblazoned the initials—not of Jesus Christ as one might expect—but of N. J. G., Naasón Joaquín García, the 3rd generation “anointed apostle” of the world-wide La Luz Del Mundo (LLDM—“Light of the World”) church organization.
(Photo: La Luz Del Mundo in Dallas after worship has ended.)
Little did we know at the time, that this so-called apostle (of apostasy) was already under investigation by various law-enforcement agencies in the United States for sex-trafficking, child molestation, psychological torture, statutory rape, child pornography, forcible oral copulation of a minor, control by manipulation, etc., etc. Just a few weeks before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, Naasón Joaquín García was arrested when he stepped off his own private jet in Los Angeles.[1]
As obvious newcomers, including one non-Latino, we are intercepted and given special treatment and placed on a back row of wooden pews. Friendly Hispanic ushers encourage us to use our printed bulletins, reading and singing along with the apparently poor but well-dressed and probably hard-working congregation. The women are dressed modestly in white, wearing long skirts and transparent headdresses of different colors, and the men are dressed in formal business attire, wearing coats and ties.
The sermon and singing appear to lead to a climatic central point of the service when, row-by-row, under direction from the ushers, every single member of the congregation—except us two visitors—begins to form two single-file lines, one section for women and another for men, and pass in front of the throne depositing their tithes and offerings and returning to their seats. We were not forced to do so.
Various incarnations of Ponzi schemes are not unique to America or guys like Bernie Madoff. Many experts have told Trinity Foundation that there is more money stolen in the name of God than any other way.
After having been found guilty of 173 counts of conspiracy to commit a crime and defrauding by false pretenses, Reverend Edward Buabeng, a Ghanian pastor and overseer of Liberty Vineyard International Ministries, was sentenced to a total of 519 years—consisting mostly of 8-year terms to be served simultaneously.
The case came to its conclusion after a three-year trial, in which 12 witnesses from over 100 defrauded victims were called to testify against the accused persons.
The main complainants, John and Brenda, were promised a 40% rate of return every three months and invested an equivalent amount of US $13,000 (roughly ₵161,403.02 in Ghanian Cedi currency) into the convict’s company, Career Link Marketers Company Limited. The legal process began when the couple were unable to collect any money back from the pastor and reported Rev. Buabeng to the police.
Overall, Reverend Buabeng received the sum of GH₵ 2 million according to one article (as of this article $162,601.60 US dollars). He didn’t deny the allegations against him and initially told police he would refund the money. Yet he reportedly went into hiding after failing to return the money and was eventually re-arrested, leading to his trial.
The old cliché attributed to Michael Douglas still stands—” If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
Trinity Foundation President Pete Evans delivered the following speech during the Corruption and Impunity in God’s Name forum at the International Anti-Corruption Conference 2022 held today in Washington, D.C. The conference is a project of Transparency International which is non-profit advocating for financial transparency on a global scale.
Thanks for your introduction Hazel, I’m Pete Evans, president of Trinity Foundation in Dallas, Texas and we’ve been investigating and exposing religious fraud and excess for over 3 decades now. I’ve been a licensed private investigator for most of that time and have worked undercover for months at a time in religious organizations on 3 occasions. We regularly provide information to journalists and governmental agencies such as the exempt organization division of the IRS.
BUT, there is a veil of financial secrecy that shrouds and protects religious organizations.
Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, and other religious entities in America do not have to report any financial information either to the IRS, the public, or their own congregations. This is known as “church status” and their financial disclosure is only voluntary.
We’ve seen this veil of secrecy lead to massive waste and extravagance, money laundering, bulk-cash smuggling, a tremendous indifference to the poor and downtrodden, and even rape, pedophilia, or sex-trafficking by televangelists, pastors, priests, and other church leaders—all in the name of God.
In 2007, cumulative reports from Trinity Foundation spurred Senator Charles Grassley of the US Senate Finance Committee to begin investigating religious fraud and self-dealing by requesting financial records and threatening numerous subpoenas to six prominent media ministries.
The threat of public testimony into abuses of the tax code before the senate scared the televangelists and heads of religious denominations.
So what became of the inquiry? The Senate probe caused a momentary spike in awareness but was largely ignored by the US media and the investigation eventually went nowhere.
One of several reasons for the Senate’s failure to act was that the televangelists being investigated combined their resources to hire lawyers, lobbyists, and social media experts.
For publicity purposes, the suspected media ministries created a website that claimed religious persecution. Of course, that was never the issue, it was always only about the misuse and extravagant waste of donor money.
What will it take to bring a wake-up call for transparency to religious organizations?
In 2008, Trent Huddleston, a former accountant at Oral Roberts University, America’s university of choice for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians, sued the university for discharging him “after fifteen months of intimidation and harassment.”
Huddleston alleged that university officials ordered him “to cook the books.” Buried on page 4 of the lawsuit was the most serious allegation: more than $1 billion US dollars flowed annually through an unrestricted account.
That should have spurred on an army of investigative reporters to follow the money. But nothing came of it. Aside from a couple of articles at the Tulsa World newspaper, journalists failed to explore the scandal.
Buried in government documents, inaccessible to journalists, there may exist Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARS) to verify allegations of money laundering at Oral Roberts University and prominent Christian media ministries.
Financial institutions are required to file Currency Transaction Reports when a person deposits or withdraws $10,000 or more in cash. When individuals attempt to avoid reporting requirements by making multiple deposits or withdrawals in a short amount of time, often called “structuring,” financial institutions are required to file these Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARS).
Unfortunately for investigative reporters and private investigators the Bank Secrecy Act prohibits the release of these reports to the public.
Additional allegations of massive money laundering involving religious organizations have surfaced with little media attention.
On May 3, 2000, the United States was preparing for a possible indictment of televangelist Benny Hinn for money laundering when the government’s main witness died of a suspicious heart attack.
Benny Hinn Ministries obtained a protective order to prevent disclosure of critical information.
But sometimes there are legal ways to obtain the truth. A Freedom of Information Act Request (or FOIA request) to the FBI revealed that Hinn’s former Chief Financial Officer Gene Polino allegedly embezzled $400,000 per week at one point.
One ideal way to smuggle dark money is via private aircraft, by boat, or similar means. It’s typically called Bulk-Cash-Smuggling which Title 31 U.S.C. § 5332 “makes it a crime to smuggle or attempt to smuggle more than $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments into or out of the United States, with intent to evade U.S. currency reporting laws” (Also, see Title 31 U.S.C. §§ 5316 and 5317).
Trinity Foundation tracks televangelist jets daily with our Pastor Planes social media accounts (Instagram and Twitter). We’ve observed flights to the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Nevis, and other well-known tax haven nations over the years.
One of our informants has a nickname for televangelist jets—he calls them “laundry tubes.” The televangelist he worked for smuggled stacks of cash from country to country and then back to the US on his jet—tons of money and jewels. When offerings were taken in other countries, this particular televangelist would personally gather some of the money and the best of the jewelry to keep for himself.
On one occasion, the cash on this jet was stacked to the ceiling of the aircraft. On another occasion, this particular televangelist smuggled a bunch of valuable red rubies from the offering plate out of Russia on his jet and our informant was detained and questioned by Russian authorities for three days about the rubies.
Another televangelist’s jet was reportedly used for bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the country illegally and on one occasion gunrunning of machine guns.
In the 1990s, a DEA informant reported a pallet stacked with cash in a Mexican airport destined for Haiti. The cash was thinly covered by televangelist Robert Tilton’s brochures.
In 2015, our small organization expanded our investigations abroad.
Shortly prior to the COVID Pandemic, Trinity Foundation reported bulk cash smuggling to the FBI by one large multi-national church with hundreds of church locations in the Western Hemisphere funneling money overseas, out of the US.
On multiple occasions IRS officials have acknowledged the dark money problem in churches. In 2005, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson sent a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley claiming because churches were not required to file an informational return, “we have little ability to monitor their operations against diversion of assets.”
In recent years, some of America’s largest religious non-profit institutions have been reclassified as churches to avoid reporting requirements.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Gospel for Asia and CRU (formerly named Campus Crusade for Christ) no longer file a Form 990 which discloses compensation for ministry executives.
Back to Senator Grassley’s already weakened 2007 inquiry, in 2011 Grassley requested the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, known as ECFA for short, to establish a commission to study and offer solutions to abused tax code loopholes.
The ECFA requires its members to be financially transparent, but in practice, looks the other way and rarely enforces its requirements.
In this case, the ECFA commission became a textbook example of regulatory capture (also called agency capture or state capture) whereby the organizations to be regulated take control of the process. Some CPAs and attorneys of the same six ministries under threat of subpoena were appointed to the ECFA task force, like foxes guarding the henhouse.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media never reported on the lobbying efforts that were taking place behind the scenes. Televangelist Benny Hinn would later tell his TV audience that he spent $5 million fighting the inquiry.
Hinn hired two former IRS Commissioners, Larry Gibbs and Fred Goldberg, to represent him during the inquiry.
Invariably, these unreported church funds make their way into the political process. Dark money buys influence.
Some televangelists also use church and ministry-owned jets to travel to political rallies and religious events with political campaigning overtones.
Should these aircraft receive a tax-exemption? The IRS needs to investigate and provide guidance on inappropriate uses of non-commercial aircraft.
Ministry’s dark money even reaches the politicians sometimes. According to one of our informants, a non-profit religious TV network would give money to employees to illegally donate to politicians.
So what can be done about the problems of church and ministry financial abuses?
Here’s a multi-prong approach necessary to address the growing decline of financial transparency and the increase of dark money in religious institutions.
Increase financial transparency in religious institutions.
Amend laws to provide greater access to financial data such as SARS.
Educate the public regarding donor responsibility.
Churches and ministries must be required to file a Form 990 which discloses total revenue, total expenses and the compensation of executives.
Congress should amend both the 1974 Privacy Act and Bank Secrecy Act to allow for the release of information in the public interest. For example, both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations should be required to submit to increased scrutiny by the public—these are not private persons, they are man-made entities.
Additionally, non-profit companies should not be allowed to form shell companies, limited liability companies, or shadow companies.
Allow journalists to obtain Currency Transaction Reports and Suspicious Activity Reports by filing FOIA requests.
Law enforcement and regulatory agencies like the IRS should provide status reports to whistleblowers. Currently, when Trinity Foundation submits a complaint to the IRS, the IRS is prohibited from revealing if an audit or criminal investigation has been launched or closed.
In the rare cases the IRS revokes the tax-exempt status of a non-profit, the IRS sends the organization a revocation letter which is confidential. These letters should be available via FOIA requests so journalists and donors can see if the organization used donations to pay any penalties.
The United States Congress could also take a cue from Australia’s external standards for non-profit organizations. Australia requires non-profit organizations, including churches, to disclose how funds are spent when they are used in foreign countries.
After Hillsong Church’s Australian leadership was informed that sending cash to Romanian individuals would need to be reported, the church sent them money anyway from Hillsong Global LLC, an American church-related company. Hillsong Global does not file a 990 which would disclose this kind of transaction.
There is complete opacity, the system is broken down, it’s not working!
With these legal changes, greater transparency would reduce the ability of churches and ministries to launder money and illegally buy political influence. The time to act is now.
If anyone wants to talk about this, I’ve got lots of examples!
(End of Speech)
APPENDIX
Here are some recent examples:
In 2019, a private jet belonging to the international leader of the Philippine-based The Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, Apollo Quiboloy was detained for bulk-cash smuggling. His employee, Felina Salinas, was caught with a suitcase containing more than $300,000 in Hawaii. Apollo Quiboloy, a preacher that promotes himself on social media as “the Appointed Son of God”claims over 6 million followers in over 200 countries.
In November 2021, Quiboloy was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury and is on the FBI’s most wanted list for Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, and Sex Trafficking of Children by Force, Fraud, and Coercion; Conspiracy; and Bulk Cash Smuggling.
We used to call televangelist Benny Hinn the “Teflon televangelist” because of his slippery avoidance of prosecution or tax revocation by the US government. His ministry claims to be a church and has the secretive “church status”.
However, Brazilian televangelistEdir Macedo, may be the greasiest, slimiest tele-preacher. Macedo, perhaps the wealthiest televangelist in the world, was arrested in August 2009 in Brazil for siphoning billions of dollars from mostly poor followers to buy TV stations, businesses, and jewelry for himself. He was charged along with nine others for massive money laundering through fake companies but was never convicted.
Macedo’s church (but not Macedo) was accused again of money laundering in 2020. According to Brazilian news site Poder360, in one fiscal year, May 2018 to April 2019, at least 5.9 billion reals–approximately $1.093 billion in US dollars–moved through church bank accounts in a questionable manner.
Malawi televangelist Shepherd Bushiri, who claims to walk on air, was arrested two years ago in South Africa for money laundering the equivalent of over $6 million dollars. Bushiri skipped bail and fled to Malawi where he enjoys protection from the government. Pretoria, South Africa’s News 24 has reported the South African government faces a January 25, 2023 deadline to complete its investigation. Then a final extradition hearing should be held.
More on Hinn
Hinn’s former attorney Larry Gibbs works for Miller & Chevalier, a law firm that specializes in “thwarting investigations.” It’s no joke, the law firm website says, “Given the stigma of being accused of criminal activity, clients seek our early and rapid intervention to thwart investigations before they become public.”
Hinn’s other former attorney Fred Goldberg was the IRS Commissioner that granted the Church of Scientology its tax exemption.
It’s likely that Gibbs or Goldberg met with Senator Grassley on Hinn’s behalf, but neither registered as lobbyists.
Hinn’s Ministry with its church status files no Form 990 and does not disclose how much money the organization spends on legal expenses.
Jim Bakker
While not a recent example, many people have forgotten that as televangelist Jim Bakker’s media empire collapsed, journalists reported the existence of two sets of books: The fictitious numbers and the real numbers.
More on Politics:
In 2020, TV preacher Robert Morris flew to Washington, D.C. in Daystar Television’s Gulfstream G5 jet for the National & Global Day of Prayer and repentance featuring a prayer proclamation from Donald Trump.
Daystar’s jet and televangelist James Robison’s jet traveled to California where Robison and Daystar president Marcus Lamb (and family) attended a political fundraising event at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point.
In our May 2022 newsletter (article here) we suggested a simple way to curb religious fraud and excess. It would hold moderate and large religious organizations more accountable and provide donors with more transparency allowing them to make more informed decisions.
Month after month, we show our (small) mailing list and website visitors, how much religious fraud is going on and how much donor money is being wasted on extravagant, luxurious lifestyles.
Nothing will change until the U.S. public is fed up with the disparity between religious non-profit organizations and all other non-profit organizations. Non-profits such as the Red Cross and World Vision show the world how much and where their money goes. Religious non-profits… well, most don’t.
It’s too easy to claim marvelous, wonderful charitable works publicly on the one hand, while wasting donor’s money on frivolities and extravagance on the other.
TELEVANGELISTS, PLEASE STOP AND COMPARE:
We dig water wells for the thirsty. Sure you do; but what about the Perrier, Smart Water, and Champaign served to you chilled in First Class or on your private jet?
We build and finance orphanages for the fatherless. Sure you do, but compare the mansion you live in to most orphans’ stone walls, uncomfortable cots, meager meals, and dirty bathrooms.
We feed and clothe the homeless. You must feel good about this, but compare your daily rich diet and the expensive suits you wear as opposed to the bean and rice staples and worn hand-me-down rags of street people in your own community.
This sheep’s-clothing disguise will always wear thin and wear off, eventually exposing the insatiable, self-seeking core of corrupt religious leaders— evident for all to see.
As inflation is making homelessness worse, the great divide between the “haves and the have-nots” is now more apparent than ever.
Month after month, we write about the extreme wealth of many of America’s preachers and compare that to the poorer Christians who support them—sometimes surviving off macaroni and cheese to give their last dollars to one “ministry” or another.
Do these large ministries give back? Do they meet the needs of the poor surrounding them? Some do, most don’t. At least not in any significant way, from our vantage point.
One of the religious non-profit ministries we investigate has received over $1 billion in revenue in less than ten years while spending less than 5 percent of its total funding on helping the poor.
Ask one fellow, Larry Fardette, who, in his time of great need for his ailing daughter, contacted dozens of the ministries he supported asking for help.
(Photo: Pete Evans, President of Trinity Foundation)
How much is embezzled by “Christian” religious leaders? Researchers at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, which study this problem, produce an annual estimate which is published each year in the January issue of the International Bulletin of Mission Research.
This year’s estimate: $59 billion in ecclesiastical crimes. Meanwhile, $52 billion will be spent on world missions.
Let those numbers sink it. More money is stolen by religious leaders than is spent on world missions.
Is there a way to dramatically reduce this crime? Our non-profit foundation has tried to avoid suggesting any national legislation over the years, but that has to change.
(Photo: St Matthews Churches includes inexpensive items such as this tablecloth in mailouts to create a sense of obligation for the letter recipient to donate.)
How a Man You’ve Never Heard of Created the Unholy Grail of Televangelist Fund-Raising Letters and Keeps the Cash Rolling In Over 60 Years Later.
By Mike Renfro and Pete Evans
You’d certainly be forgiven if the name Gene Ewing doesn’t ring a bell. What this name does ring is the cash register. Gene Ewing is the behind-the-scenes J.R. Ewing of TV Preachers and their cash gushers. It’s a show that’s been going on for over six decades—mostly at the expense of the poor, elderly, sick and hurting.
His stock-in-trade for most of his career has been scripture-draped fund-raising appeals, replete with highly personalized pitches and promises for renewed health and prosperity. Predictably, it’s Ewing and his partners that have been the ones prospering. And if IRS records before they “went dark” and re-branded as a church are any indication at all, they’ve been prospering to the tune of millions of dollars annually—all pouring into a lawyer’s P.O. box, overflowing with cash, checks and cynically-abused dreams.
You can google him but you’ll struggle to find a photo of him from this side of the 1960s. Perhaps the only thing more mysterious and elusive than the man is the church from which his appeals emanate. And unlike many of his cohorts in televangelism such as Jim Baker and W.V. Grant, who both spent time in prison, Ewing’s always managed to avoid both the law and the limelight.
James Eugene “Gene” Ewing, Milton Ray McElrath (Ray), and until recently, their now-deceased lawyer J.C. Joyce have been the three main individuals consistently running what is now Saint Matthews Churches under many different names. How did this organization evolve into the money machine it is today?
A word from our president, Pete Evans, about why people fall for the prosperity gospel.
Desperation is a huge motivator. When you or someone close to you is dying or suffering, it’s natural to want to help in whatever way we can. Or, when finances become so strapped that you or a person close to you is in anguish, there is a desire to alleviate the suffering. So if a televangelist comes on television promising that God wants to heal and financially bless individuals, but God requires a gift first—care of the ministry of course; desperate people begin to grasp at straws and take desperate measures. It becomes a sort of heavenly lottery and plays on people’s natural greed as well. In desperation, people give to the ministry in order to get their invisible lottery ticket and “expect a miracle”.
The televangelists use a twisted and perverted version of one of Jesus’ parables—the parable of the sower and the seed. First, the true meaning of the parable: Jesus was talking about the seed of Christ in us—about his life in us and how it can be trampled on, choked out, or—best case—nourished.
Next, the perversion of the parable: the seed is your money; which, planted in the good ground will be multiplied by God via health, healing, or an exponential increase in wealth based on the amount one gives. To quote Hitler’s despicable propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” I would add, at least until the spell is broken. The Goebbels quote is often called “The Big Lie”.
In November, Fort Worth-based William Gallagher was sentenced to 3 life terms in prison and an additional 30 years, all to be served concurrently.
The 80-year-old Gallagher, who wrote “Jesus Christ, Money Master,” used Christian radio and meetings held in churches to promote his fake investment “Ponzi” schemes. Gallagher billed himself and his company, Gallagher Financial Group, as financial services experts. As of this writing, his Linked-In page still claims 11-50 employees.
Ms. Lori Varnell, chief of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Elder Financial Fraud team, told the BBC News that she wasn’t surprised Doc Gallagher would use Christian radio to dupe his victims. “Within the Christian community, there’s a high level of trust. Especially here in the Bible Belt,” she said. “Once you start speaking the Christian language, and using their words, their phrases, that will be a tell-tale sign to other Christians that you’re a Christian.”
Gallagher promised unusually high returns of 5% to 8% annually on investments and even provided fake financial statements to present to his investors. The BBC also reported his scheme amassed $32 million dollars.
Gallagher’s Christianity-cloaked scheme, also known as religious affinity fraud, deceived many trusting elderly investors—mostly between the ages of 62 and 91—and left a wake of financially destroyed victims, bereft of their life’s retirement savings.
