A $585 Million Fraud by 2 Church Memebers (#184, Topic M)

Crimes committed by prominent lay church members and members of the cloth used to be rare. Now, the reverse is the case; it is a rare day that one does not read a story or two on this topic. For my on-going research project (on the effect of western religion on Chinese culture in the 17th century), I have collected so many cases that I had to stop doing so months ago. Still, today's Washington Post carries a story that deserves writing about. It seems that the president and the chief legal counsel of the a church foundation in a western state "were each convicted of three counts of fraud and one count of conducting an illegal enterprise in a scheme that lasted decades and cheated 11,000 investors across the country of about $585 million." Their technique? "Bible-quoting salesmen." Their pitch? "[H]elp [church] causes, such as building new churches." It is interesting to note that, despite a 10-month trial resulting in a possible incarceration of up to 46 years (the sentence is yet to be rendered), their defense is sermon-like: "The truth is not determined by what this court said. Righteous people have spent time in jail before." (Ralph Reed [#178] used a similar approach in his unsuccessful bid as Georgia's lieutenant governor: "He thought he could convince his base that they shouldn't believe their eyes and ears, that they should trust him instead." (Time 7/31/06)