A Pastor: $2 million + Zoo, Church and Parishioner Fraud

by Gary Snyder

An evangelical pastor in Montreal, Canada whose ex-followers say he fleeced them of hundreds of thousands of dollars was arrested in connection with a nearly $1-million fraud case at a zoo. He faces fraud charges in connection with $978,000 allegedly diverted from Parc Safari Zoo from 2005 to 2008. He faces a string of lawsuits for unpaid bills, bounced checks and bad debts. Last July, a group of former church followers allege that he had talked them into loaning him cash - $142,000 in one case - and never paid them back. They said some members of the multiethnic congregation mortgaged their homes or borrowed with high interest credit cards to meet his requests for money. He is also charged with embezzling $734,734 over three years on behalf of Actions Bethel du Canada Inc., a charity based at the church.