Controversial religious cult leader Rocco Leo will return to South Australia in January to face assault charges,.
The head of Agape Ministries – labelled a “doomsday cult” by opponents – is accused of brawling with a man at Adelaide Airport in April.
Fugitive cult leader Rocco leo is living in a five-star resort in Fiji, according to the man he allegedly assaulted weeks before police raided the Agape headquarters.
Philip Arbon today told AdelaideNow that in April he had been taking photos – which he intended to hand to authorities – of Leo when the cult leader allegedly assaulted him.
Runaway Agape cult leader Rocco Leo assaulted the estanged husband of one of his church members at Adelaide Airport less than a month before his doomsday cult was raided by police, a court has heard.
Magistrate Lydia Makiv issued an arrest warrant for Leo – who failed to appear at today’s scheduled hearing – before recalling it to allow his lawyers to argue against it tomorrow.
The empire of controversial Agape Ministries Church spans two states, eight properties and a fleet of 13 vehicles, and its funds are held in 10 separate accounts, it has been revealed.
Court documents obtained by The Advertiser show for the first time the scope of church leader Pastor Rocco Leo’s fortune obtained, his detractors claim, through fraud.
Runaway Agape Ministries cult leader Rocco Leo has offered to “refund” a profoundly disabled woman $290,000 as “a sign of good faith”.
In documents filed with the District Court, Leo denies defrauding $420,000 from Silvia Melchiorre, saying any monies received from her were a gift.
A plaintiff who cannot be named and another former church member, Martin Penney, are suing Agape Ministries pastor Rocco Leo and two of his associates, Joe Venziano and Mari-Antionette Veneziano.
They want their money back, claiming they handed over more than $400,000 and $1 million respectively to the church based on lies about a doomsday scenario.
Agape Ministries International was granted charity organisation tax breaks from July 2000 by the Tax Office.
It was stripped of the status last month after police raided its properties around Adelaide and seized 15 allegedly illegal firearms and other weapons.
Runaway cult leader Rocco Leo convinced a successful Adelaide businessman he would be poisoned and killed by an evil government unless he handed over $1.2 million, court documents allege.
The documents say that the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is suing the head of Agape Ministries for more than $1 million, plus damages, costs and interest, after he handed over cash and goods to the doomsday cult.
A month after South Australian police raided more than a dozen properties associated with the bizarre Adelaide-based Agape Ministries doomsday cult, several questions remain unanswered.
But for independent senator Nick Xenophon the weapons found during the raids are a chilling reminder that decisive action must be taken to prevent cults getting footholds in Australian society.
A judge has widened a court order which freezes assets belonging to Agape Ministries.
The order was made on two civil claims before the Adelaide District Court by former Agape Ministries members who want their money back.