Westminster Church Pastor Pleads Guilty to Investment Scam
Westminster Church Pastor Pleads Guilty to Investment Scam
by Contributing Editor
The pastor of a Westminster church pleaded guilty Thursday to his involvement in an investment scam federal prosecutors say took in $33 million.
From September 2014 through April 2019, Kent R. E. Whitney used his Church of the Healthy Self to solicit investments with promises of a guaranteed an annual rate of return of 12%, a guaranteed return of principal with no risk because it was federally insured, that the worst return over the previous five years was a 1.5% profit in January 2015, the church’s traders had not lost money in 15 years and that the church was audited by an accounting firm, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said little of the investments went into any trading accounts.
Whitney sent bogus reports to investors, prosecutors said. He admitted in his plea agreement to falsely reporting his total income in 2018 as $17,539 when it was actually at least $452,872, prosecutors said.
About $435,333 of Whitney’s income was obtained through the scam, prosecutors said.
Whitney, 38, of Newport Beach is scheduled to be sentenced April 16 on guilty pleas to mail fraud and filing a false federal income tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com
