CRIMINAL CHRISTIAN CAPITALI$M

‘Curses from God’: Church minister accused of forcing parishioners to help with pandemic fraud

Then-President Donald J. Trump’s name is printed on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in this April 23, 2020 photo taken in San Antonio.

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, July 29, 2024

Leaders of a Missouri church have been charged with a $1.2 million pandemic fraud scam in which prosecutors say they stole the identities of congregants and then applied for government loans in their name.

Authorities say that when they began to investigate, Kenneth C. Sparks III, who is accused of being the ringleader, bullied church members into turning over information by telling them he was an “apostle of God” and his “actions and decrees could not be questioned.”

“When those same questions were posed by church members to Defendant Sparks, he would threaten church members with ’curses from God.’ Defendant Sparks also regularly scolded church members who inquired about his fraudulent scheme for questioning a ’man of God,’” prosecutors charged.

Sparks told them the money would help the church, Faith Walk Ministry in Paris, Missouri. Instead, the indictment says, he personally siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme and spent it on clothing and cars.

Making matters worse, prosecutors say Sparks submitted a pandemic loan application in his own name, even though he was a convicted felon and facing a new indictment at the time. He had been convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old parishioner at a previous church — again using his religious authority to keep her compliant — and then was charged with failing to register as a sex offender when he moved to Missouri.


“We all know the pandemic relief loan programs were created for those whose businesses were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Thomas F. Murdock, the IRS special agent in charge of its St. Louis criminal investigations office. “The American public is tired of hearing about fraudsters using the programs to enrich themselves and they want to know that those responsible are being investigated and held accountable.”

Sparks was arrested Friday.

Prosecutors say Jeffrey Oboite, who submitted his own bogus loan applications, trained Sparks and the church’s administrative assistant, Mya M. McCLain, in how to file. Mr. Oboite was to get a cut of the money.

Also charged in the case are Harold G. Long and Javonte D. Long, both congregants whom authorities said filed bogus applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Prosecutors have asked that Sparks be held without bail, arguing the decades-long sentence he faces if he’s convicted on all charges makes him a flight risk and the type of person who would return to criminal behavior if released.

“In fact, shortly after Defendant was placed on parole for repeatedly sexually assaulting a fourteen-year-old girl, he fled from his Texas parole officer so that he could start victimizing Faith Walk Ministry parishioners,” prosecutors told the judge.

They also said Sparks resisted arrest when deputy marshals caught up with him in Florida, where he’d gone after being charged in Missouri.

The indictment says Sparks spent some of his pandemic money at a Bentley dealership in Chicago and on designer shoes


• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.