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2 pastors face defendant
More articles on this topic: Abraham KennardFrom behind the witness stand Wednesday, two pastors got the long-awaited chance to square off with the man at the podium before them — a man who was once their trusted business partner and is now defending himself against federal fraud charges.
Abraham Kennard is accused of using his company, Network International Investment Corporation, to steal $9 million from 1,600 churches and nonprofit organizations in 41 states.
For every $3,000 in membership fees collected up front, NIIC promised member organizations at least $500,000 in forgivable loans or nonrefundable grants. Most members never saw the returns, according to the government.
Kennard faces more than 100 counts of mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and income tax evasion in relation to the alleged scheme.
Both James Cane, pastor of Victory Worship Center in Birmingham, Ala., and Jerleete Mickie, bishop for Moving with a Vision Ministries in Stafford, Va., are former NIIC affiliates. They each directly confronted Kennard — who is acting as his own defense attorney — when they took the stand for federal prosecutors Wednesday.
Cane explained during direct examination that although he paid $3,000 to be part of NIIC’s “Church Project,” he was suspicious of Kennard from the moment he met him — and even more so as he watched him conduct company business.
“You are somewhat displeased with my administrative abilities?” Kennard asked Cane during cross-examination.
“To say the least,” Cane responded, drawing audible reactions from the jury box.
When experienced business professionals offered their assistance with running NIIC, Cane said, “You kicked everybody to the curb who could have helped you. … I knew me coming to you would not change anything,” he added.
“Maybe God was sending you to him so you could help him,” Kennard then suggested, referring to himself in the third person.
Kennard’s comment riled Cane, who responded, “This is the kind of stuff we got at meetings. I only wish that you could literally hear yourself. Literally.”
After he had finished testifying, Cane told the Rome News-Tribune that he “was glad to be able to look at (Kennard) directly” when he took the stand Wednesday.
“I really didn’t get to tell him what I thought. But I felt a sense of obligation for those other pastors I helped get in,” he said, explaining that as an affiliate he recruited around 15 other pastors to join NIIC.
Mickie expressed similar sentiments when he took the stand. “To this day I regret every bit of it,” he said of his recruitment work for NIIC.
Mickie testified that he witnessed Kennard’s deception when he, along with several other NIIC members — including witnesses Billy Brooks and William Bellafant, who testified earlier in the trial — was presented with a $200,000 display check at a March 2002 meeting.
He learned later that he would only be receiving about $1,900 that night. “We got a check after the show. But it wasn’t for $200,000,” he said.
Just a few months later, in July 2002, Mickie met even more disappointment. Kennard spoke at a meeting in Orlando on July 26, telling the huge crowd that the money he’d been promising them for some time would not be delivered that night.
“The bishops behind me were crying. It was the worst thing I ever seen in the ministry,” Mickie told the court. “Everybody was shocked.”
But it was more than a lot of money Mickie lost that night — he also lost the friends who had trusted him enough to join NIIC themselves.
“All those people do not contact me. They don’t talk to me. These people were my friends,” Mickie said. “We’ve been trying to build relationships ever since.”
Cane, too, is feeling the loss. “Those were people who trusted you. You can’t help but have some feeling about that.”
Proceedings in Kennard’s case will resume at 9:30 this morning.
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