A group of church leaders, described by former members as cult figures, stole $23 million from veterans in a wide-ranging scheme, federal investigators said Wednesday.
The scheme centered around House of Prayer Christian Churches, a group based in Georgia with houses of worship near military bases in five different states, the Justice Department said in a press release.
The church’s leader was known as Rony Denis, but his first and last name are not known, according to the feds. They said he assumed the identity of Rony Denis by stealing it in 1983.
Denis and seven other House of Prayer leaders were accused of bank fraud and wire fraud. According to the feds, they convinced church members to act as “straw buyers” in home purchases, then rent the properties out to earn money for the church.
Former church members told Military.com about the bones of the scheme in a 2022 article, in which they used their status as veterans to obtain favorable home loans, then rented out the properties.
Additionally, church leaders convinced veterans to enroll in their seminary, then pay using money from the GI bill, the feds said. House of Prayer raked in $23.5 million from this scheme while providing little education, according to investigators.
“I was in that Bible college for nine and a half years, and I was promised a degree, a theology degree, and nine and a half years later, I’d never got one,” ex-member Jenessa Pappas-Wright told local CBS affiliate WRDW. “I do hope that Denis doesn’t just walk free because he’s an evil, evil man.”
