Thus saith the Lord even as these lying evangelists have bilked my people and made the weakest of my flock their prey grinding their faces in the earth, and lusting after even the dust upon their heads, -- so have they been given over to deceivers and they have been spoiled and plundered.
Howl ye, and cry out for your earthly riches are a virulent cancer to your souls and spirits, and that which you have built up for the last days shall be utterly stripped from you. And your corrupt riches shall be used as a witness against you, even as the money stolen from you has been used against the ones that stole it. For yet in a little while ye shall be brought magistrates and prosecutors in chains and be compelled to confess you r shame and ye shall indeed bear your shame before all men. For even as Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart's names have become a hissing, nigh unto cursing amoung you, so too shall this come upon you and your children suddenly and your sins that are many shall be found out of men and for that reason the hearts of many shall wax cold and turn away from the Gospel for the abominations upon abominations that you have committed and the sins which you have casue my people to sin.
For it would be better than you had never been
born, it would be better that you have never read the words of the Gospel,
it is better that you had never preached the corrupted Gospel that you preach
for by your own words thous shall be condemned, by your own confessing shalt
thou be snared and by your own profession you shall go down to eternal damnation
and eternal suffering -- that was reserved for your father the devil.
I do not prophesy these things lightly.
My soul is in anguish and trembles at the word of the Lord -- we do enerstly
seek the Lords return and the Lords power return to the church -- so we can
not shrink as He seeks to cleanse the church so that out of its many corrupt
hordes some few might be saved. For as the Lord has shown mercy unto me and
pulled me from my sin and iniquity I am no longer my own and am obligated
to cry out against the sins of my people lest their blood be upon my hands.
Isaiah 3:15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Amos 2:6-8 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous (read that as righteousness) for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name: And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Ezekiel 34:1-3,10-11 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
On eve of
fraud trial, Christian investors say they were betrayed
When Gregory Setser's import empire came crashing down two years
ago, little was left to pay back hundreds of investors and church groups who
funded his International Product Investment Corp. with at least $160 million.
Big-name evangelists and everyday churchgoers are among those who
were invited to invest in a plan to import cheap, foreign-made goods for
pre-arranged sales to retailers like Garden Ridge, Kmart, Michaels and Pier 1.
But what remained after the Securities and Exchange Commission
shut the company down serves as testament to the lavish California lifestyle of
Mr. Setser, a former Canton, Texas, ceramic merchant.
Paid for by thousands of evangelical Christians:
A 100-foot yacht moored off Mexico, a private plane and helicopter
parked at a Los Angeles airport, and a quartet of well-furnished homes in nearby
Rancho Cucamonga.
This morning, jury selection is set to begin in a downtown Dallas
federal courtroom to decide if the 49-year-old Mr. Setser, four family members
and a German business associate carried off a massive Ponzi scheme from 2000 to
2003 that used religion as part of its sales pitch.
"That was the biggest betrayal of the whole thing," said
investor Helen De Lemos of Houston. "The Christian affiliation was the big
reason we took the risk in the first place."
Ms. De Lemos said she and her husband lost about $30,000 investing
in an IPIC venture in July 2003. They were drawn into the venture through a
friend at church, who also lost his investment before the SEC shut down
International Product Investment Corp.
"It sounded a little funny at first, but with a Christian
organization we thought we could take that risk and maybe God would watch over
it," Ms. De Lemos said.
Efforts to contact Mr. Setser in Canton, where he has been on home
detention and electronic monitoring since early 2004, were unsuccessful. He and
four other family members, including his wife and two adult children, have
denied any wrongdoing.
The
Trinity Foundation, a group that regularly blasts so-called prosperity gospel
taught by many televangelists, has noted a growing trend in what's come to be
called religious affinity fraud.
"It's
part and parcel of the whole prosperity gospel deal," said the group's
founder, Ole Anthony. "People like Setser get connected and close to
spiritual leaders, who make money on the first one or two levels of a scheme,
and that gets approval of the fraud to believers," he said.
Over 100 witnesses
Court records suggest a complicated, confusing trail of Setser
family spending and business deals that used IPIC money to pay for their homes,
cars, a family member's wedding – even cosmetic surgery – instead of building
its import business.
Lawyers on both sides of the criminal case filed thousands of
pages of documents, and called for more than a hundred witnesses to stand by to
testify in U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn's court. The trial could last for
up to six weeks.
Among
those who may be called to testify are evangelists Benny Hinn of Irving, Fort Worth's Kenneth Copeland and
Florida-based Reinhard Bonnke of Christ For All Nations. Authorities believe they were duped by IPIC's
scheme when the company paid them "profits" that turned out to be
money taken in from new investors. In a Ponzi scheme, money from new investors
is used to pay off old investors.
If convicted, the six defendants, each charged with 22 counts,
could face statutory sentences of up to 45 years in prison.
Jurors may hear more than a simple accounting of how and where all
the money may have gone.
Prosecutors plan to introduce evidence from court records filed
last week that Mr. Setser and two family members threatened at least four
people who may be called to testify against them.
In court records filed last week, prosecutor Jeff Ansley's filing
wrote: "Gregory Setser threatened to have [the witness] and his family
killed if he ever 'crossed' Setser.
"On numerous occasions, Setser claimed to [witness] that he had
connections to organized crime, including the Mafia," Mr. Ansley wrote.
Another witness was told that he needed to be careful because he
was being watched, and a third witness told authorities that "anyone who
went against them in this case ... was going to go down," the document
states.
The filing did not cite an exact time the threats were made, only
that one threat was made after the Setser family members were indicted. No
further charges of witness tampering have been folded into the criminal case.
Prosecutors also hope to introduce attempts by three Setser family
members to bring in new investors in a diamond project linked to the United
Nations – long after their criminal indictment. The family would also get
access to large stashes of money in offshore banks after the trial, according
to court records.
Prosecutors also plan to tell jurors that all five Setser family
members under indictment failed to file individual income tax returns since
1999.
Regardless of the outcome, those who lost money with IPIC have
only a slim chance of collecting full restitution.
Mr. Setser promised investors returns of 25 to 50 percent in two or
three months' time. Other investors were promised 6 or 7 percent returns each
month for allowing IPIC or its subsidiaries to manage their money.
According to court documents and interviews, goods were imported,
including toys, knickknacks, decorative ironwork for gardens and electric scooters.
Showcases were built in Los Angeles and Panama to allow IPIC employees to
display to prospective investors warehouses stockpiled with mountains of
cheaply bought bounty.
But such goods were "rarely" really purchased from
abroad for resale to retailers as promised, according to Dennis Roossien, a
court-appointed Dallas attorney who has spent more than two years tracking and
selling off the remnants of IPIC to repay investors.
"It was simply stated that Setser and IPIC wanted to share
the extraordinary blessing bestowed upon them with other like-minded Christian
organizations," Mr. Roossien wrote in court documents.
His investigation involved a cadre of lawyers and forensic
accountants who scanned bank accounts and offices from California to New York
to Germany and Panama.
"Very little capital appears to have been used to purchase
merchandise," he wrote.
Investors who could prove they gave IPIC money claimed about $35
million in losses, but prosecutors believe IPIC took
in at least $160 million – no one knows for sure. The Setser family did not
cooperate.
By last summer, Mr. Roossien's investigation had spanned the
globe, but only a little more than $12 million was found to return to
investors.
Documents show that almost $2 million came from investors who
voluntarily paid back early "profits" IPIC had given them after the
investors learned the money was really just new investor money.
Mr. Roossien also recovered about $6 million by selling Mr.
Setser's personal estate – which traced back to IPIC investor money.
Mr. Roossien never found any accounting by the Setsers of what was
actually owed investors, should their business plans have actually worked.
Last summer, Mr. Roossien asked a federal judge to allow him to
approve refunds to be mailed out this fall – when all is said and done payouts
could be as little as 15 cents on the dollar.
Some items
worthless
The rest of the missing IPIC money appears to have been squandered
in grandiose, incomplete business ventures doomed to lose money – or that would
have required millions more in capital before they could be sold, court
documents allege.
Much of the product lines actually purchased by the Setsers were
part of the "elaborate sets" and couldn't be resold or were
worthless, Mr. Roossien wrote.
Like the condoms and the corn liquor.
IPIC funds paid for millions of condoms from Brazil and thousands of
liters of corn liquor from the U.S. – all found in a warehouse in Central
America.
"No one other than Gregory Setser appears to know how he
envisioned selling the liquor or the condoms or why they were located in
Panama," Mr. Roossien told the judge.
Ms. De Lemos remembered that her investment involved buying a
large shipment of latex condoms for a stateside buyer.
"I'm surprised to learn they ever bought any," Ms. De
Lemos said. "I thought it was just another empty promise.
"Now, we can sort of laugh about it," she said. "It
wasn't our life savings, but when you think about some who put in retirement
savings, it's not funny at all."
E-mail twyatt@dallasnews.com
WHAT IMPORT INVESTMENT
COMPANY BOUGHT
Court-appointed lawyer Dennis Roossien has spent more than two
years compiling a list of assets paid for by investors in International Product
Investment Corp. Here's a partial list of what was found:
50,000 liters of corn liquor made in the U.S. and stored in a
Panamanian warehouse, but no liquor sales permit for Panama.
7 million latex condoms from Brazil with a December 2004 expiration
date.
A 108-acre coffee plantation in western Panama bought for $200,000
that had yet to yield a bean.
A $1.2 million paint factory in Panama that never sold or
manufactured anything.
Equipment for a bottling plant in Ensenada, Mexico, that sat in
shipping crates.
A bottled water company with a few pallets of stock for show – plans
called for Panamanian tap water to be used as its source.
A $1.2 million "start-up" Internet service provider that
never started up.
A worthless Tasmanian oil and gas project.
A record company to "ignite the singing career" of a
Setser daughter. It lost $780,000.
450,000 gallons of obsolete, expired paint in a California warehouse
used as a prop for investor pitches that cost $3 a gallon to dispose of under
state law.
Hundreds of boxes of cheap toys from China with no interested buyers
lined up.
A large extrusion machine that was bought despite its inventor's
admissions that it didn't work.
An inoperable concrete building-block plant that never formed one
concrete block.
Half ownership in an idle, steam-generated power plant near San Francisco
that would cost millions more to be recommissioned, and required $6,000 a
month to monitor.