Savannah, Ga. – Federal prosecutors accused leaders of Georgia churches in five states, in which parishioners serving in the military have occupied millions of dollars in veteran benefits.
Indictment for Savannah paid houses in U.S. District Court Wednesday Pray for American Christian Church Founder Rony Denis Seven more church leaders conspired to commit bank fraud and wire fraud and other federal crimes.
Authorities say church leaders exploited soldiers and other congregations by incorporating soldiers and other congregations into seminary programs that deplete their GI bill education benefits. They also said church officials used the names of parishioners on fraudulent mortgage applications to buy the church and then rented it to the houses of congregation members.
“The defendants are accused of enriching themselves by utilizing trusts, faiths, and even the services of our country’s military members,” Paul Brown is in charge of FBI The Atlanta office said in a press release.
Prosecutors said they didn’t even know Dennis’ real name, whom he alleged to assume the name after stealing another person’s identity in 1983. He founded the House of Prayer about twenty years ago. The church’s headquarters is located in Hinesville, southeast Georgia, and is home to thousands of veterans and Army soldiers in the vicinity of Fort Stewart. The indictment said the congregation there was an additional 300 members.
Prosecutors said the Prayer House was branched out and more than a dozen churches were opened in five states, usually near military bases. It also established affiliated Bible Seminary in Hinesville and Fayetteville, North Carolina; Killing, Texas; and Tacoma, Washington.
The indictment says the church focuses on recruiting military service members to the congregation and put pressure on them to use their GI bill education benefits to the admissions of the Academy.
The indictment all four states pay for the GI bill payments of $23.5 million for tuition, fees, books and housing expenses in 2013 and 2021.
The allegations against Dennis and others stemmed only from $3.2 million of these benefits payments paid to two seminaries praying to Georgia. This is because of programs carried out in Georgia under religious exemptions granted by state regulators. Prosecutors say the exemption prohibits Georgia Theological Seminary from obtaining federal funding – including the GI Act benefits of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Church officials lied to Georgia regulators in annual form, saying the seminary had not received federal funds, the indictment said.
Steven Sadow was listed as Denis’ attorney in court records, but did not immediately respond to an email Thursday asking for comment.
A group called Veterans Education Success wrote to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2020, saying former students complained that the seminary at the Prayer House had exhausted their benefits while providing them with little education. FBI Agents in 2022 served on search warrants at several prayer churches, local news media reported.
Church officials also used its members as straw buyers, covering up the purchase of the leader’s purchase of rental properties, the indictment said. Prosecutors said church leaders forged loan applications and closed documents and forged homes that authorized people purchased and transferred to members of the congregation.
The indictment says the Prayer House received $5.2 million in rent between 2018 and 2020, with some of the money being used to pay for two of Dennis’ homes and the credit card bills of church leaders.
Dennis is also accused of helping falsify his 2018, 2019 and 2020 federal income tax returns. FBI Agents and Columbia County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested the founder of the church at his mansion in Martinez, west of Augusta, according to WRDW-TV.
In another case, federal prosecutors also sued Bernadel Semexant, a pastor at the Prayer House Church in Hinesville. The indictment Wednesday was charged with sexual abuse by Semexant on a girl aged 12 to 15. William Joseph Turner listed as a pastor’s lawyer in court records and did not immediately return the email.
