Minister Pulled a Fast One, Uncle Sam Says

HOUSTON (CN) – A minister swiped $462,000 from people, including members of his own church, by claiming that he managed money for churches and orphanages, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission claims in Federal Court. Jeremiah Yancy aka Jeremiah Glaub pulled it off with his company, co-defendant Longbranch International, the CFTC says.     The CFTC says that Yancy persuaded his victims them to invest in “off-exchange foreign currency contracts” by falsely promising 20 to 40 percent returns.      Yancy, whose “last known address” was in Atoka, Okla., talked his clients into giving him more than $1 million for foreign currency trades, the CFTC says. He told his victims that he managed trading accounts for churches and orphanages, according to the complaint. He never registered with the CFTC.     Yancy and Longbranch also used “fund-raising entities” to solicit investors, and sent them bogus account statements showing high returns, in accounts containing up to $10 million, the agency says.     “Defendants did not inform customers that these forex trading account statements were for demonstration and/or test accounts and did not represent actual trading of accounts containing any customer funds,” the commission says.     The commission seeks disgorgement, restitution, treble damages, and fines of $130,000 for each violation securities law from Oct. 23, 2004 to Oct. 22, 2008 and $140,000 for each violation afterward.

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