Brazil wants church leaders extradited

Brazil has requested the United States extradite two leaders of an evangelical church who allegedly used their followers’ donations to buy mansions, a horse farm and apartments in Brazil and the U.S., the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Estevam Hernandes Filho, 52, and his wife, Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes, 48, were arrested by U.S. customs agents in Miami earlier this month on charges of carrying a large sum of undeclared cash.

According to Brazil’s Justice Ministry, the United States has 60 days to decide whether the couple will be sent home, where they face charges of money laundering, larceny and fraud.

The two were arrested Jan. 9 after arriving in Miami with $56,467, but claimed to be carrying only $10,000, according to an affidavit.

The church has called the charges against Hernandes Filho and his wife “slander” and said there was simply a “mistake” in their customs declaration but declined to provide details.

“I can assure you that the recent events have in no way shaken the faith of our followers,” Reborn in Christ spokesman Marcio Foffu said by telephone.

The couple’s attorney, Luiz Flavio Borges D’Urso, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Hernandes Filho, a former Xerox marketing executive, and his wife founded the Reborn in Christ Church in 1986 and rode the wave of popularity of evangelical churches in Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country.

The Reborn in Christ Church claims to have “hundreds of thousands” of faithful and some 1,200 temples, including three in the United States — Orlando and Deerfield Beach, Fla., and Boston.

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