For more than six years, an Arizona con man maintained his innocence in a fraud that bilked millions of dollars from churchgoers in Arizona and 12 other states.

But on Tuesday, Edward Purvis of Chandler pleaded guilty to orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that involved fake gold mines, phony businesses and a bogus promise to fund Christian causes with investor money.

The owner and operator of a Downey, California, firm has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme that collected nearly $1 million from victims who were falsely promised that their money would be used to host Christian rock concerts.

The charge of wire fraud carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

On March 18, 2009, Shawn Merriman visited his lawyer. Together they went to the federal government and handed them a case.

His next stop was to talk to the leaders at the Church of Latter Day Saints, where he was a respected bishop. He confessed that the company he started 14 years earlier, Market Street Investors, was a fraud.

Then he came home and told his wife.

Shawn Merriman had accumulated a $4 million fine-art collection, classic cars, expensive boats and a luxury mobile home. He had paid off the families’ million dollar house in Aurora. It had all been funded with money he stole from his clients.

Last September the admitted Ponzi-schemer was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison in an emotion-filled hearing that included an appeal from his mother, one of his victims, to “make him pay.”

Now divorced, Andrea — who was unaware of her husband’s fraudulent business — shares her story on her blog, The Unexpected Life.

• Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend
• How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work
• In every Ponzi scheme, some investors profit early on. But courts can force them to return the money, even if they were unaware of the fraud.

A month before he stands trial on fraud charges, Ed Purvis — the owner of a Christian non-profit accused of bilking millions out of churchgoers in Arizona and 12 other states — is now seeking an expert’s endorsement to promote a gold-mine project to investors.

He is scheduled to stand trial June 14 in Superior Court on 43 counts of criminal fraud and theft charges related to his non-profit company Nakami Chi Group Ministries International, which authorities describe as a Ponzi scheme.

Edward Purvis, the man who promised churchgoing investors in Arizona and 12 other states he could make them wealthy while funding Christian causes, was indicted Friday on 43 counts of fraud and theft.

Authorities accuse the 40-year-old Chandler man of operating a multimillion Ponzi-scheme through Nakami Chi Group Ministries International.

Her husband Gregory Earl Setser was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his involvement in the scheme. His sister Deborah S. Setser was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison and Joshua Nathan Setser was sentenced to two years in prison.

Beginning in 2000 in North Texas, the defendants devised a scheme to induce people to enter into investment contracts with IPIC.

They targeted churches, ministries and religious organizations and their pastors, leaders and members and represented to investors that IPIC was a highly successful import/export business.

A California pastor and another man were convicted Friday in federal court of bilking more than 500 people out of more than $32 million in a fraudulent investment scheme.