WP: Baptist Group's Leaders Convicted: Investors Lost $585 Million

[DeepModem Mom]

Baptist Group's Leaders Convicted
Investors Lost $585 Million
By Terry Greene Sterling
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; Page A03

PHOENIX, July 24 -- Two former executives of a failed Southern Baptist foundation were convicted here Monday in what prosecutors said was the nation's largest fraud ever targeting members of a religious group.

William Pierre Crotts, who was president of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, and Thomas Dale Grabinski, the group's former chief legal counsel, 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.

In a trial that lasted 10 months, prosecutors claimed that the executives were driven by shame to hide the foundation's mounting investment losses, bilking investors who were recruited in Southern Baptist churches and by Bible-quoting salesmen who visited their homes. Investors were told their money would help Southern Baptist causes, such as building new churches, and were promised above-market returns.

Instead, prosecutors said Crotts and Grabinski had designed a Ponzi scheme in which new investors were needed to pay off the secret mounting debt. Donald Conrad, an Arizona assistant attorney general, characterized Crotts and Grabinski during closing arguments as business failures who defrauded investors in part to "feed their financial fantasies" that they were savvy businessmen....

***

Prosecutors failed to show that Crotts and Grabinski profited personally from the fraud, which involved hiding millions of dollars of losses in shell companies they created to conceal the losses. The two men were acquitted of 23 theft counts....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400948.html

[msongs]

1. well at least Jesus loves them...maybe nt

[arcane1]

5. Jesus would be literally whipping their asses

money-changers are bad enough... but crooked money-changers acting in Jesus' name? That's a major ass-whipping right there!

[flyarm]

2. AHHH LITTLE LORD PISSY PANTS BASE STRIKES AGAIN!! N/T

[Initech]

3. Proof: The fundies are the greediest group of people on the planet

We can add them to the list that includes the likes of George Bush, Ken Lay, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and so on...

Ah, dont worry, there's a special place in hell reserved for those people.

[pokercat999]

14. If there only were a hell. I'm sure the idea of hell is used

by the religious crooks throughout history to avoid real punishment in the here and now.

[TwentyFive]

4. GOOD!! EXCELLENT!!! 585 million LESS going to right wing causes!!!

Bilking Baptists out of millions? :)

It's too bad the game had to end.

[arcane1]

6. LMAO!

:evilgrin:

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. They prey on the most obvious section of the populace.

Anybody who is stupid enough to buy into that fundie shit is a perfect target for any two bit con man. I'm amazed that they only snared 11,000 of those shit for brains.

[pokercat999]

15. Gotta remember most of those stupid enough to "buy-in"

to the fundie religion (or any other) are usually too poor to invest. Also remember they are probably tithing at 10% of their income anyway.

[Speaker]

8. A fool and his money........ n/t

[nashville_brook]

9. what a bunch of anti-Baptmites!

[TrogL]

10. Somebody finally followed the money

[truthisfreedom]

11. half a billion dollars makes bush's arbusto fraud look like peanuts tho...

i'd hate to be one of the people who lost everything in this scheme.

[grytpype]

12. Southern Baptist fundies are pretty easy to fool.

As we well know from the political area. "We'll invest your money in building churches and beat the Fortune 500, saith the Lord." Sounds pretty damn plausible to me!

[xchrom]

13. here's what i don't get...

''Prosecutors failed to show that Crotts and Grabinski profited personally from the fraud, which involved hiding millions of dollars of losses in shell companies they created to conceal the losses. The two men were acquitted of 23 theft counts....''

i'm guessing the guys personally benefitted from SOME of that damn money -- and they couldn't prove it?

anyway -- glad to see they were convicted.

[smacky44]

16. Most of the mega church ventures would fail if the relig robots stopped

sending them their money and gave it to people in real need instead.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Well, Southern Baptists do believe in the 'prosperity gospel'. And, since

they're 'born-agains', they're forgiven of ripping off $585 million and waiting for the Rapture.

[nealmhughes]

18. Standard and Poors, anyone?

FSLIC, FDIC, perhaps? SEC?

If one doensn't see a form of those, look out, caveat Baptistae...