To: Winfastorlose who wrote (1201973 ) 2/17/2020 11:48:21 AM From: Brumar89 2 RecommendationsRecommended By
Respond to More proof Trumpism is a cult:The PTL Club 's fundraising activities between 1984 and 1987 were reported by The Charlotte Observer , eventually leading to criminal charges against Bakker. [41] Bakker and his PTL associates sold $1,000 "lifetime memberships", entitling buyers to an annual three-night stay at a luxury hotel at Heritage USA , during that period. [42] According to the prosecution at Bakker's fraud trial, tens of thousands of memberships were sold but only one 500-room hotel was ever finished. [43] Bakker sold "exclusive partnerships" which exceeded capacity , raising more than twice the money needed to build the hotel. Much of the money paid Heritage USA's operating expenses, and Bakker kept $3.4 million. [44] indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud , 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy . [23] In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, North Carolina , a jury found him guilty on all 24 counts . Judge Robert Daniel Potter sentenced Bakker to 45 years in federal prison and imposed a $500,000 fine. [45] [46] [47] At the Federal Medical Center, Rochester in Rochester, Minnesota , he shared a cell with activist Lyndon LaRouche and skydiver Roger Nelson . [48] United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld Bakker's conviction on the fraud and conspiracy charges, voided Bakker's 45-year sentence and $500,000 fine, and ordered a new sentencing hearing in February 1991. [49] The court ruled that Potter's sentencing statement about Bakker, that "those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests", [50] was evidence that the judge had injected his religious beliefs into Bakker's sentence. [49]
