The Securities and Exchange Commission's Fort Worth office on Wednesday clarified information that it had previously released about a lawsuit filed against a California businessman and four associates who are accused of bilking several evangelical Christian ministries.

The suspects ran what federal regulators have described as a $160 million Ponzi scheme.

DALLAS (AP) -- A businessman was charged Tuesday with exploiting his connections to evangelical Christians to create a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded religious organizations and their leaders out of more than $160 million, federal officials said.