Check Out Investment Advice
If you can’t trust your minister, whom can you trust?
The minister of his church promoted an investment scheme that involved purchasing antique cars from an estate sale and then reselling them for a significant profit. The parishioner took cash withdrawals on credit cards, borrowed from his retirement account, withdrew funds from his savings and sold most of his investments in order to come up with $300,000 to invest in this scheme. He presented the minister with the check and waited for the delivery of the antique cars.
And he waited and waited. No cars. He asked for his money back, but no refund. The minister had given the money to the two men who originated this scheme and they were long gone.
Another example of fraud through a network of churches involved a scheme that offered shares in companies that were supposed to go public and make the investors a lot of money. Of course, it never happened. However, in this case, the originators of the scheme were arrested and fined.
These examples illustrate the importance of checking out investment advice no matter who is offering it.