Another day, another false prophet.
Two self-professed religious leaders — including 53-year-old David Taylor, who calls himself “Apostle” and “Jesus’s best friend” — made approximately $50 million through forced labor at sites in Texas, Florida, Michigan, and Missouri, according to a grand jury indictment announced on Wednesday.
The scheme was sprawling, but simple: The ministry allegedly ran call centers across multiple states in which people were forced to work, sleep, and hit certain monetary goals. Then, the money was spent on a lavish lifestyle peppered with luxury properties and vehicles for the ministry leaders, according to federal officials.
Both Taylor and 56-year-old Michelle Brannon, the leaders of Kingdom of God Global Church, were arrested on Wednesday. Brannon was executive director of the ministry, said a Department of Justice press release. Taylor was arrested in North Carolina, and Brannon was arrested in Florida.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned a ten-count indictment for the pair’s alleged roles in a forced labor and a money laundering conspiracy.
“The Lord has given David E. Taylor a special teaching ministry to empower His people and bring them into the fullness of intimacy with Him,” according to the ministry’s website. “God has personally taught David E. Taylor, face to face, the mysteries of the Kingdom of God!”
The ministry’s Houston site, at 12701 North Freeway, was one of several businesses raided by the FBI on Wednesday in the case, including at locations in Missouri and Florida, as was first reported by KHOU and the Houston Chronicle. Nine men and eight women were escorted out of the building by officers on Wednesday morning, some in handcuffs, Fox 4 News reported.
The ministry ran call centers, which solicited donations in multiple states, including Texas. At sites like the one in Houston, according to the indictment, Taylor and Brannon allegedly compelled their victims to work as “armor bearers,” or personal servants, required to sleep in the facility. They were not allowed to leave without permission, said the 23-page document.
Taylor allegedly demanded that his “armor bearers” work long hours on the phones without pay, as well as transport women from ministry houses, airports, and other locations to Taylor’s location and ensure those same women took Plan B emergency contraceptives, according to the indictment.
The money — approximately $50 million in donations since 2014 — was used to purchase luxury properties, luxury vehicles, and sporting equipment. That included a boat, jet skis, and ATVs, the department said.
Those who disobeyed orders or failed to reach lofty monetary goals were punished “with public humiliation, additional work, food and shelter restrictions, psychological abuse, forced repentance, sleep deprivation, physical assaults, and threats of divine judgment in the form of sickness, accidents, and eternal damnation,” said the department’s press release.
“Money laundering is tax evasion in progress, and in this case, the proceeds funded an alleged human trafficking ring and supported a luxury lifestyle under the guise of a religious ministry,” said Special Agent in Charge Karen Wingerd of IRS Criminal Investigation, Detroit Field Office. “IRS-CI stands committed to fighting human trafficking and labor exploitation, and pursuing those who hide their profits gained from the extreme victimization of the vulnerable.”
If convicted, the pair face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and decades in prison.