r/SeattleWA • u/ChiefOfTheFourPeaks • 17h ago
Crime Kirkland pastor allegedly scammed church congregation out of $13M in wire fraud scheme
https://komonews.com/news/local/kirkland-pastor-allegedly-scammed-church-members-out-of-13m-in-wire-fraud-scheme12
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u/Temporary-Article996 17h ago edited 17h ago
Churches and government - no bigger scammers / grifters in the world
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u/Countcordarrelle 16h ago
Churches are way bigger scammers, at least we have roads and bridges from the government.
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u/TheRealRacketear Broadmoor 16h ago
Churches supply a lot of support services to the community.
Salvation army and Union Gospel are 2 big ones.
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u/MisterRobertParr 15h ago
All the government can do is https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_37b238a2-5b96-491e-9474-2f9907ee54e6.html...and yet homelessness keeps getting worse. I wonder where that money went to?
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u/mountainshavecat Ravenna 9h ago
A republican grifter? I'm super not shocked!
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u/douglascoolgrey 17h ago
Get Nick Shirley on it!
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u/kugkug 9h ago
A Kirkland pastor, Cristian Popescu, has been indicted on federal charges alleging he defrauded more than 30 church members and other investors out of at least $13 million through a fake Bellevue internet company called Followone, Inc.
Prosecutors allege that Popescu, pastor of Passion for Christ in Kirkland, used his position of religious trust to recruit investors, telling congregants that God had chosen them to invest and that the profits would benefit the church and community. He allegedly promoted Followone as a global online marketplace and social network with substantial revenue, a rising stock value, and an imminent Nasdaq IPO.
According to the indictment, the platform was not a functioning business but a non-functional set of screens. Popescu allegedly promised a seat on the company’s board to anyone who invested $1 million and encouraged investors to use retirement funds, take out home-equity or personal loans, and draw on children’s college savings.
Prosecutors further allege that more than $4.5 million was diverted to accounts belonging to Popescu, his wife, and other family members, and that he paid himself more than $1 million in wages from 2017 through 2024.
Popescu has been charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and 5 counts of money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty, and the allegations remain pending in federal court.
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u/ImRight_YoureDumb 13h ago edited 11h ago
Popescu is a citizen of Romania residing in the United States.
You know what to do, DHS. In fact, many people like to accuse immigration enforcement of being discriminatory toward "brown people," but I would be more than happy if they focused some resources on the very crooked Eastern European communities on the Eastside.
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u/BibleDataGirl 16h ago
If that's true I hope he's never allowed to have any leadership position in a church again. It's so unfortunate that so many denominations are so loose with how they define and promote priests and pastors.
I've heard a lot about Kirkland though, don't know what is going on up there..
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u/Countcordarrelle 16h ago
If you’re paying money to practice religion you are being scammed.
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u/BibleDataGirl 15h ago edited 15h ago
Not really. Churches exist through our collective effort as parishioner.
If we want churches to exist, then we have to create them as laity.
If you removed all donations from the Churches, then every church would turn into the church we all hate. A Christian nationalist church funded exclusively by political agents.
EDIT: It is also why I believe in tax-exception for Churches. It helps alleviate the tendency for profit-motive driven church organization and thereby in my opinion strengthens the separation of church and state.
We should probably be WAY more strict about taking tax except status away from problematic churches though.
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u/rndnom 15h ago
Better, remove the default tax-exempt status for any church. Let them show evidence of their good works for the community like any other organization filing for that status.
Those that are legitimately helpful get the status. Those that are thinly veiled MLM schemes don’t.
Watch the grifters run.
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u/Helisent 9h ago
The city voted < 20% Trump and church attendance is not high. "The pursuit" does have a full parking lot, including many people who probably drive in
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u/BibleDataGirl 8h ago
Don't know anything about "The pursuit"? What's the deal?
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u/Helisent 7h ago
It is a huge growing pentecostal church that started in Snohomish and spread into U district, spokane and Kirkland. The pastor Russell Johnson is gifted at preaching and bible, and he is friends with Trump's faith advisor Paula White, so he keeps getting invited to the White House. He used to work on political campaigns for Mike Huckabee and Dino Rossi. He has been getting big donations recently, including crypto, and when visiting Tennessee he showed how an anonymous person dropped off a suitcase of gold bars and silver coins https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1060865756936694&id=100090398382151
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u/MisterRobertParr 15h ago
As a Christian, I find it very frustrating that they did that, and I hope they are convicted.
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u/BadOutOfTheBox 15h ago
Its ok folks, this is only wire fraud. Had it been welfare fraud then Trump would have sent the DOJ to sue the state for allowing it to happen.
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u/Duh_Its_Obvious 16h ago
Every single thing about religion is a scam. Serves them fucking idiots right.
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u/Deep-Assumption-6694 8h ago
Angry atheist archetype right here.
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u/montex66 15h ago
Well at least he didn't have to pay taxes on the money he stole, amirite /SeattleWA?
I know my audience. :-)
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u/BoringOrange678 13h ago
Whoa a white male conservative Christian immigrant committing fraud?
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u/DCAmalG 13h ago
Is Romani white though?
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u/government_not_ok 12h ago
Yes. Unless you mean “Roma/gypsy” which is different from what I hear from Europeans. Edit: misread i thought you meant “Romanian”.
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u/abathingvape911 8h ago
>powerful white men with loads of money
>who are also corrupt
who could’ve thought
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u/PM_ME_SKYRIM_MEMES South Lake Union 16h ago
It’s always the ones you most suspect.