Post by POA on Jun 3, 2004 14:47:54 GMT -5
SAN FRANCISCO
Foursquare sinner forgiven
Former president's investing may have cost church $15 million
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Thursday, June 3, 2004
Saying he has "been to hell and back,'' the former president of one of the nation's best-known Pentecostal churches is in San Francisco this week seeking forgiveness for his role in a huge evangelical investment scam that could cost his flock some $15 million.
The Rev. Paul Risser, the disgraced leader of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, appeared to receive that forgiveness Wednesday, as nearly 3,000 church members stood in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel to salute him with rousing choruses of "Amazing Grace.''
The weeklong annual convention of the 4 million-member church had been scheduled long before Risser's March 10 resignation as head of the Los Angeles- based denomination.
This is not the first time the Foursquare Church, founded in 1923 by radio evangelist and faith healer Aimee Semple McPherson, has been touched by controversy.
But the investment scheme that snared Risser and several of the nation's best-known TV preachers may be one of the costliest scandals to rock the evangelical movement.
Risser and his church are among scores of churches and ministers who have lost millions by investing church money and personal funds in two Southern California companies -- the International Products Investment Corp. and Financial Advisory Consultants.
According to federal authorities, the two firms were classic Ponzi schemes that promised miraculously high returns on church investments. They appeared to meet those promises by using funds from later investors to pay off early investors.
Operating in the close-knit evangelical community, the fast-growing firms attracted new business by providing personal endorsements from church leaders who got the early high returns.
But it all came crashing down in recent months, when federal prosecutors and Securities and Exchange Commission investigators shut the two firms and charged James P. Lewis, the head of Financial Advisory Consultants, and Gregory Setser, the leader of International Products Investment Corp., with multiple felony counts of fraud.
The scope of the alleged fraud is still unclear, but federal authorities say churches, pastors and individual congregants may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other investors in the two collapsed companies include television evangelists Benny Hinn and Reinhard Bonnke, along with Northern California church leaders with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination.
The Rev. Glen Cole, district superintendent of Assemblies of God churches in Northern California and Nevada, said his Sacramento office invested $2.3 million with Setser's purported import/export business, but got back all but $460,000 of the investment.
"What we learned is you never can be sure these days. This is not the first time a Christian ministry has lost out by trusting people,'' Cole said.
But Cole's loss pales in comparison to those piled up by Risser and the Foursquare churches.
San Francisco attorney Stephen Farrand, who investigated the Foursquare fiasco, said the church may have lost $15 million.
Farrand said both Risser and church treasurer Brent Morgan, who also resigned last March, should have been more suspicious of Setser and Lewis.
Farrand also said Risser and Morgan bypassed the denomination's board of directors and finance council in a series of shaky investments that date back to March 2001.
They continued until Dec. 11, 2003, the day Risser handed Lewis a check for $5 million.
Less than two months later, on Feb. 2, the FBI arrested Lewis in Texas. He now sits in an Orange County jail awaiting trial on federal fraud and money- laundering charges. Setser, who is free on bail, faces a separate trial in Dallas.
Farrand said his investigation found Risser guilty of "management negligence that approaches gross negligence.'' But he said there is no evidence that the former Foursquare president committed fraud himself.
Risser declined a request for an interview with The Chronicle.
But in an emotional address to the convention Tuesday night, the Pentecostal leader said he has "sinned against the heart of God'' and "failed the church by violating your trust.''
"I have, metaphorically, been to hell and back,'' Risser told the ballroom audience. "I am very, very sorry for these transgressions.''
In the convention session Wednesday morning, the delegates stood and raised their hands to affirm a "statement of grace'' forgiving Risser and urging him to remain involved in the church.
This year's convention is chaired by the Rev. Ron Pinkston of Danville, pastor of the East Bay Fellowship, the largest Foursquare church in the Bay Area, and has attracted delegates from around the world.
Before the convention adjourns Friday night, the 2,600 voting delegates are expected to elect a new president and adopt new measures designed to tighten financial controls at church headquarters.
E-mail Don Lattin at dlattin@sfchronicle.com.