Category: Fraud

Former businessman Ephren Taylor, who describes himself as a ‘Social Capitalist,’ has been charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an alleged $11 million Ponzi scheme that targeted socially conscious churchgoers.

Among the victims are members of Atlanta’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. They are suing their pastor, Eddie Long, for promoting Taylor’s scheme.

What a South Florida family of psychics did for 20 years was criminal fraud, federal prosecutors say.

But the defense team for the Rose Marks family says it was something very different — religion, free speech and a sincere belief in spiritual healing.

A former Los Angeles church pastor, who owned and operated several fraudulent durable medical equipment supply companies with her husband, was sentenced today to serve 3 years in prison for her role in a $14.2 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Last January her husband was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Updated A French appeals court on Thursday upheld the Church of Scientology’s 2009 fraud conviction on charges it pressured members into paying large sums for questionable remedies.

The case centered on the complaints of several people who spent huge amounts of money for the cult’s ‘purification packs’ and other alleged ‘cures.’

A wealthy musician lost $20 million over six years to scammers who persuaded him of threats against him coming out of Central America, the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei and the CIA, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Vikram Bedi’s co-defendant, Helga Invarsdottir, pleaded guilty last year to grand larceny and is awaiting sentencing.

A Paris appeals court has rejected a bid by the Church of Scientology to get the group’s fraud conviction thrown out because the case has taken too long.

The refusal of that request means the appeals hearing will move forward

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.