Ephren Taylor's Disastrous Megachurch Ponzi Scheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1913, Charles Russell, a restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, was accused of bilking his followers on grain sales. Russell, it seemed, had been\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/09\/ephren-taylors-disastrous-megachurch-ponzi-scheme.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ephren Taylor's Disastrous Megachurch Ponzi Scheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1913, Charles Russell, a restorationist minister from Pittsburgh, was accused of bilking his followers on grain sales. 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Although Russell\u2019s followers (now known as Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses) still maintain his innocence, the scheme has become familiar, repeated countless times over the past century by a steady parade of religious hucksters, snake-oil salesmen, and bronzed televangelists looking to make a quick buck off of Bible Thumpers. The scams have gotten more sophisticated over the years\u2014from the fake revelations of revivalist preacher Peter Popoff, to the 80s excess and false lashes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, to Greater Ministries International\u2019s antigovernment pyramid scheme\u2014but the basic idea remains the same: Praise God, promise miracles, and when all eyes are turned up to Him, rob the whole flock blind.<\/p>\n

Certainly, that was the MO of Ephren Taylor II, a twentysomething minister\u2019s son and self-proclaimed \u201csocial capitalist\u201d who spent most of the years between 2007 and 2010 visiting churches with his Wealth Tour Live seminars, hawking \u201csocially conscious\u201d investment opportunities that would make believers both godly and rich. Taylor was arrested this summer after nearly three years on the run from federal authorities, who claim he was running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that targeted megachurches around the country.<\/p>\n

Initially, Taylor\u2019s appeal was obvious. Marketing himself as the \u201cyoungest black CEO of a publicly traded company,\u201d Taylor claimed to have founded two tech companies\u2014and made his first million\u2014before graduating from high school. He promised \u201clow-risk, high-reward\u201d investment opportunities that would \u201cshow you how to get wealth and use it for the building of His Kingdom,\u201d as he told a congregation in 2009. In sermons, and later with infomercials, books, and webinars, Taylor would rev up the flock, quoting scripture, exalting Jesus, and sprinkling vague promises of \u201ceconomic empowerment\u201d and \u201cattainable housing\u201d with disparaging remarks about traditional investment vehicles like stock markets and mutual funds. The audience, he claimed, would be better off \u201cfiring their brokers\u201d and buying into one of Taylor\u2019s \u201cno-risk sweepstakes machines\u201d\u2014or, better yet, transferring their money (all of it, ideally) into self-directed IRA custodial accounts, which Taylor\u2019s company City Capital Corporation would then invest in inner-city businesses.<\/p>\n

Congregations, including powerful megachurches like New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta and Joel Osteen\u2019s behemoth Lakewood Church in Houston, ate it up, opening their doors\u2014and wallets\u2014to the black Elmer Gantry of the new millennium. \u201cYour life is about to change,\u201d said New Birth pastor Eddie Long, then a powerful televangelist, introducing \u201cmy friend, my brother, the great Ephren Taylor\u201d to his congregation. God, said Long, wants \u201cto finance you well to do His will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the rest here<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"