Edir Macedo’s Church Accused of Money Laundering in Angola

Barry Bowen

Four of Universal Church of the Kingdom of God’s leaders have been indicted in Angola, Africa, for money laundering.

The Brazil-based church is exporting the prosperity gospel into Africa much like America’s televangelists.

Church founder Edir Macedo is the owner of Brazilian TV Network RecordTV and a bank. Macedo is copying the lifestyle of America’s most notorious televangelists by owning his own fleet of jets and a helicopter.

Revista Forum reported, “Macedo’s right-hand man and former artistic vice president of Rede Record, Bishop Honorilton Gonçalves da Costa, was indicted” along with “Angolan Bishop Antonio Pedro Correia da Silva, former president of the church in the country, and pastors Valdir de Sousa dos Santos and Fernando Henriques Teixeira.”

Money laundering accusations have plagued the church for more than a decade.

In 2020, Rio de Janeiro’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and Brazil’s Financial Activities Control Board accused church leaders of laundering $1 billion – i.e. using fake companies to pass funds through different accounts abroad and then returning them in the form of loans.

In 2008, Edir Macedo was arrested but not convicted of embezzling $2 billion which was allegedly laundered.

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