The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged the pastor of one of the largest Protestant churches in the country as well as a barred broker with defrauding elderly churchgoers out of $3.4 million by selling them interests in defunct, pre-Revolutionary Chinese bonds.
The SEC's complaint alleges that, in 2013 and 2014, Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor at Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, and Gregory Alan Smith, a self-described financial planner who the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority barred from the broker-dealer business after his firing in 2010, targeted vulnerable and elderly investors with false assurances that the bonds — collectible memorabilia with no meaningful investment value — were worth millions of dollars.
The SEC also brought actions against Caldwell and Smith's attorney, Shae Yatta Harper, who is charged with aiding and abetting their fraud.
According to the complaint against Harper, at Caldwell's direction, "Harper drafted participation agreements in the bonds that were sent to investors," and she also "controlled the bank account to which most investors sent their funds to invest in this investment opportunity, and distributed investor funds to Caldwell and Smith at their direction."
