Georgia religious group leaders face $26M fraud charges

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia recently indicted eight people connected to the House of Prayer Christian Churches of America on 26 counts of bank, wire, and tax fraud. Prosecutors allege that the group’s founder, known as Rony Denis, stole someone’s identity in 1983 and became a United States citizen in 2002. Officials do not know his real identity. The House of Prayer Christian Churches of America operates locations in several states, with the largest located in Hinesville, Ga. In addition to Denis, the grand jury last week also indicted Hinesville, Ga., residents Anthony Oloans, Joseph Fryar, Dennis Nostrant, Gerard Robertson, David Reip, and Marcus Labat. Omar Garcia of Palm Bay, Fla., was also indicted. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Federal authorities said the church leaders exerted extreme control over congregants by manipulating them to turn over personal information, pressure them into marriages, and force them to live in rental properties owned by the church. According to the indictment, former members said leaders humiliated members who violated the organization’s rules and prohibited congregants from contacting family members who left the group. Each defendant could face decades in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office are seeking additional victims who may have been harmed by the group.

What other charges do they face? Authorities said the defendants recruited members of their organization to serve as straw buyers in real estate transactions to fraudulently acquire properties. The defendants then converted the properties into rental homes and collected more than $5.2 million in rental income to benefit members of the conspiracy.

Between 2011 and 2022, officials claimed Denis and other HOPCC leaders defrauded the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and military veterans of millions of dollars in education benefits. The group obtained a religious exemption from Georgia regulators to operate two of five locations of their affiliate House of Prayer Bible Seminary. The exemption requires Georgia seminaries not to receive federal funds, but the seminary locations applied for and received more than $3 million in veterans education benefits for Georgia locations, and more than $23.5 million across all of its locations.

In a separate indictment handed down last week, a pastor connected to HOPCC named Bernadel Semexant was accused of enticing and sexually abusing a minor.

Dig deeper: Read my report about an investigation into IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle.