Jason Stockstill on left, Larry Stockstill on right
Pastors, televangelists, and other religious leaders are held in a position of trust. In general, they are more trusted by the churchgoing, Bible-believing public because they are assumed to be living clean, godly lives. They are assumed to have integrity.
When one of these leaders recommends an investment to a member or members of their congregation who have money to invest, it should be a no-brainer to fund, finance or otherwise support whatever “great investment opportunity” they recommend.
But not so fast. We’ve been told by financial regulators that there is more money stolen in the name of God than any other way! Check out this pastor’s fraudulent crypto-currency scheme for example.
“Godly” leaders themselves are also vulnerable to investment scams. It’s common for religious leaders to be recruited by unscrupulous con-artists by appealing to the leader’s underlying human greed. Moreover, pastors are frequently bad at discerning people’s character.
Televangelist Benny Hinn was never charged or convicted of any crime, but in the early 2000s, Hinn had a hand in helping gain investors for two different ‘Ponzi Scheme’ criminals, Gregory Setser and Joseph Medawar, who stole millions from unsuspecting investors and were convicted. Our article How Criminals Target Wealthy Believers gives more details. This type of situation is known as “religious affinity fraud”.
The following is an ongoing story about religious affinity investments that have gone awry.
Larry Stockstill, Jason Stockstill, & Tangible Trading Company—an Investor’s Nightmare
Ken Addington invested $175,000
Jason Stockstill approached Ken Addington in the fall of 2021 to invest in his export company and to join the board of directors. He called it Tangible Trading Co. and incorporated it in Delaware.
When Addington found out Jason’s father, retired Louisiana megachurch Pastor Larry Stockstill was the Chairman of the Board of ‘Tangible’ he “felt it was an honor for me to serve with these men. I felt that Larry was a pastor’s pastor, a man of integrity and held him in the highest regard.”
Larry Stockstill’s personal bio is impressive: As pastor of Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for 28 years, he claims the church gave over $63 million to missions. He claims to have had a hand, directly or indirectly, in planting 22,000 small rural churches in twelve world zones. His latest book, “Model Man”, aims to help men live a life of “integrity to legacy.”
Though semi-retired, Larry’s bio says he is currently a teaching pastor under his son at Bethany Church.
Addington says he signed an 18-month contract, and on Nov. 12, 2021, he made a $75,000 loan from his 401K to Tangible with 10% interest. Jason Stockstill told him he would personally guarantee repayment if Tangible did not make it as a company.
In July 2021 Jason emailed board members, including Pastor and Chairman of the Board Larry Stockstill, promising an additional .5% ownership to board members bringing Addington’s total ownership in the company to 1.25%. Jason’s email stated, “I believe the Lord has brought together a fantastic group of men to come on this journey.”
In late 2022 and the spring of 2023, it appeared to Addington and other board members that Tangible was going to be able to pull off a deal with an experienced cattle company, AZTX, to export $21 million dollars’ worth of dairy cattle to Turkey.
Addington attended multiple meetings along with Larry Stockstill discussing logistics and other details of exporting cattle. The meetings were almost always run by Jason but Larry would be in attendance via Zoom. Larry only attended maybe 3 meetings in person due to the distance between Dallas and Baton Rouge.
These discussions, combined with the Larry Stockstill’s “pastor’s pastor” involvement, boosted Addington’s confidence in this latest business prospect of Tangible, so he wired another $100,000 investment from Frost Bank in November 2022. Jason told Addington his investment would purchase another 1% of Tangible, bringing the new total to 2.25% ownership.
Jason even took a picture of a John Deere skid steer and texted it to Addington shortly after he received the funds. Jason told Addington that he used Addington’s $100K to purchase that piece of equipment. Jason told the board that the skid steer was loaned to John Josserand at AZTX but Josserand claims that he never was loaned or provided a skid steer from Jason or Tangible Trading.
In May of 2023, the cattle deal to Turkey was realized and it appeared that Jason, working with John Josserand of AZTX got 5,100 cows on a ship headed to Turkey. Jason, Larry, and Addington watched as sixty double-deck tractor trailers arrived and loaded the cattle onto a ship in Galveston Texas.
Addington was able to track the ship’s voyage across the Atlantic with an application on his phone and knows it arrived safely to a Turkish port.
Things appeared to be looking great to Ken Addington and the other board members. But Jason never shared any of the financials with the board of directors.
Jason told Troy Andrews and Addington that he had personally put together the deal with the Turkish cattle buyers and the feed lot and that it wouldn’t have happened without him. The board members knew Jason had a contract trying to buy AZTX but had no idea that Tangible Trading Co. was not involved in the Turkey cattle sale transaction.
Jason also told Andrews and Addington that he had to help AZTX get the money to buy the cows, which also turned out to be false.
Each time Addington had signed one of these costly loan agreements, Jason asked him if he could hold on to the contract term sheets and said he would scan them to provide a scanned pdf back to Addington, but Jason never did.
More from Addington, “As board members Troy Andrews and I should have been privy to the financials of this transaction.” “With the percentage of ownership I had been given, I should have received $600,000 dollars from that transaction.”
Jason finally met with Addington in Grapevine on Mar. 30, 2024 and handed him a check for $1,458.30. This was to be the first payment for the two loans Addington had made to Jason. Jason told Addington he would be receiving two of these checks per month until the $175K was paid off. The cashier’s check did not have Jason’s home or work address on it.
In August of 2024, Jason asked Andrews and Addington to give him until the end of 2024 to rebuild and begin paying back our loans. Jason claimed he had to sell all the company assets to settle his pending divorce and to help his Dad with his blood disease and would need to rebuild the company.
Addington continued to stay in contact with Jason via email and text until Jan. 2, 2025, when Addington sent Jason an email asking if he was still on track to begin making the payments. But the email bounced back as undeliverable. Addington also followed up with a phone call to Jason and discovered that Jason’s phone number no longer worked.
After multiple attempts to get in touch with Larry Stockstill, Addington called Jared Stockstill at Bethany Church. Jared stated that Larry did not owe anyone money, and that we needed to be communicating with Jason directly.
Addington says he reminded Jared that Larry was the chairman of the board and that the bylaws stated the chairman was ultimately responsible for Jason’s actions. Jared told Addington he would speak to his father and get back to him. He called Addington back about an hour later and told Addington that Larry had not received any money from Jason and certainly not $950K.
Jared also stated that two of his brothers, Joel and James, were still owed money from Jason and that nobody in their family communicated with Jason except for his mother & father.
To date, the March 2024 cashier’s check is the only money Addington has ever received towards his $175K loan/investment.
Troy Andrews invested $50,000
When Troy Andrews was introduced to Larry and Jason Stockstill, he initially gave Jason an office to work out of.
Andrews says, “I thought he was a Christian man and trusted them (Larry and Jason Stockstill). I never thought they would screw me over.”
Jason was trying to raise money and said his dad had invested over a million dollars in his company, so Andrews wired Tangible Trading Company a $50,000 loan at 10% interest.
Andrews began to serve on the board but believes he was never officially added on any public documents.
The only money he ever saw from Jason Stockstill was a cashier’s check for $416.65 he found in his mailbox in January 2025 from Jason and Tangible, with no information about where he was banking. Andrews said it was significant that Jason wouldn’t even hand him the check in person, but at least it was tacit admission that the money was owed to him.
At one point Jason mentioned there was only $600,000 and some dollars in the bank account. And then it was gone. However, Andrews believes that at that point in time, that probably was the amount of cash in the bank—that every so often, a liar tells the truth.
On Nov. 14, 2023, in an attempt to find out why Jason was not paying repaying his debts to his board members, Jason met with Addington Addington, Troy Andrews, and Justin DuBose at the HG Supply Restaurant in Trophy Club, Texas and told the three through tears that he had given over $950,000 to his dad, Larry Stockstill, to help him with medical expenses.
Shortly after their meeting with Jason, Addington and Andrews both say they spoke with Larry Stockstill on a FaceTime video call and asked him directly if he received $950,000 from Jason. Larry didn’t answer but turned his head away from the two and just nodded his head slowly as if he was thinking how to answer. At that point, he did not affirm or deny he had received the money.
After Jason moved out of one office he leased from a different board member, he signed a lease with Andrews renting an office for $4,000 per month but never made any payments. This lasted for three or four months according to Andrews.
Andrews believes that Jason still has various pieces of equipment he bought with their investment money that he put in his own name, that he embezzled the money from the company and is using that equipment to earn a living now.
As COO, Justin DuBose invested his time…
Justin DuBose was introduced to Jason Stockstill to work for Tangible Trading Company as its chief operating officer for $16,000 monthly plus his truck expenses. After he began working for Tangible on Aug. 1, 2023 his first August paycheck bounced.
Though he soon received his August pay, he began to realize that something was significantly wrong with the company.
He says Jason kept giving him sob-stories about his financial troubles and so he stayed on for three more months never receiving his monthly paycheck before turning in his resignation in December 2023.
During his time with Tangible, he says he asked countless times to see the financial records of the company but was never allowed. DuBose has no idea if Tangible ever received the millions of dollars or any money at all from the cattle shipment to Turkey.
Toward the end of his “employment”, Jason asked him to go to the bank with him and he would straighten everything out. Jason went inside and came back out about 15 minutes later and said everything was OK now.
But after a couple of days, he realized he was never going to get paid and turned in his resignation. When he left, he was owed over $48,000 in back pay, plus more money for his truck expenses.
Gregg Peterson was owed money…
Gregg Peterson received a 1 ½ % of ownership in Tangible Trading Company to join the board of directors of Tangible.
When Peterson gave Jason a 2018 Ford F-150 LTD pickup, Jason gave Peterson an additional 1 ½ % of ownership.
Peterson also provided office space to Jason Stockstill. Jason and Larry Stockstill insisted he receive $2500 per month worth of ownership per month. This office “lease arrangement” lasted 18 months and was considered a debt on the books to be paid at a future date.
Peterson did receive some distributions from the company, but it didn’t cover all he was owed. However, he has forgiven any debt owed him by Jason or Tangible and moved on.
John Josserand, president, owner of AZTX Cattle Company
John Josserand, president of AZTX Cattle Company was introduced to Jason Stockstill by Amarillo megachurch Pastor Jimmy Evans and soon afterward the young Stockstill indicated to Josserand he wanted to buy AZTX. They even signed a contract.
Josserand feels like Jason wasted a couple of years of his life by promising to buy AZTX when he didn’t have the resources, but Jason doesn’t owe him any money. He says the contract is worthless now.
According to Josserand, Jason Stockstill and Tangible Trading Company were never involved directly in the transactional sale of 5,100 cattle to Turkey. Another company in Texas put that deal together and another company received the money and paid AZTX, not Tangible.
Summary—Beware of Mixing Church and Business
To date, no one has been charged by the authorities. But everything points to investment fraud and embezzlement.
Ken Addington, Troy Andrews, and Justin DuBose each feel strongly that Tangible’s Chairman of the Board, Larry Stockstill, bears some fiduciary responsibility along with his son Jason, and there is common agreement between the three that Tangible’s money was embezzled. The other creditor forgave the debt.
The company’s financials were never shared with these men by either Jason or Larry Stockstill after repeated requests.
The Texas Secretary of State Office revoked Tangible’s business registration for failure to maintain a registered agent on July 31, 2023, the day before DuBose began working for Tangible.
Jason Stockstill created three more companies in 2023, two of them, only days before on the same month Tangible was revoked.
DFW HYDRO SERVICE INC. was formed in July 2023, which is authorized to issue 500,000 shares with a par value of $1; D & R SOLAR CORPORATION was formed in July 2023, and is authorized to issue one million (1,000,000) shares with a par value of $1; and ENVIRO KLEAN SOLUTIONS INC. was formed in September 2023, and is authorized to issue 1000 shares with a par value of $1.
Jason is the only director listed on the articles of incorporation for ENVIRO KLEAN and DFW HYDRO. D & R SOLAR lists Jason and another man named Tituis McLaughlin as the two directors.
Trinity Foundation attempted to contact Jason’s brother, Jared Stockstill—CFO of Bethany Church via email on September 23, asking what their father Larry had done, if anything, to require repayment of the loans to Addington (and now, by extension to Andrews and DuBose).
As of this writing it is unknown how many more investors lost their money.