U.S. charges ‘Jesus Online’ Atlanta church pastor for swindling dozens of Nigerians in multimillion-dollar investment scam
A Nigerian pastor, Prosperity Moore, is facing four counts of criminal charges by the United States. Securities and Exchange Commission for scamming several Nigerians residing in the U.S. of $1.4 million under the pretext of offering them profitable investment opportunities, court documents seen by Peoples Gazette showed.
Mr Moore, 27, a Nigerian citizen and founder of Jesus Online Church, was charged in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia on January 18 for swindling about 60 persons living in America of more than $1.4 million between September 2021 and October 2022.
Through his limited liability company, Prosperity and Investment Solutions, which he named after himself, Mr Moore convinced church members in Atlanta to invest a minimum of $5,000 in exchange for a 50 per cent profit to be cashed at the end of each month.
Mr Moore, who had never acquired any form of financial education from any institution, said the funds were “for a diverse range of investments” to generate profit, court filings showed.
But the SEC found his statement to be false after discovering that he “used money received from investors to make payments to other investors and to pay personal expenses,” in a manner akin to a ponzi scheme.
