Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (17549)	6/15/1998 2:20:00 AM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 39621

Accused Pastor Held on Charges Of Grand Theft Parishioners mortgaged homes Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, June 13, 1998 A pastor in San Francisco's Bayview area was arrested yesterday on charges that he duped his congregation into financing a lavish lifestyle on the pretense of raising money to rebuild a church. The Rev. Thomas McCall, 45, faces arraignment Monday on nine counts of grand theft after investigators took him into custody at his posh rented home in Laguna Niguel in Orange County. Prosecutors say McCall persuaded seven couples at the Concord Missionary Baptist Church to take out a total of $840,000 in loans with promises to repay them. He stopped making the payments while he accumulated flashy cars and properties in Florida, Palm Springs, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes and in San Francisco's Opera Plaza. The couples, most of them elderly longtime residents of the working-class Bayview neighborhood, now face foreclosure and loss of their homes. Prosecutors are charging McCall with stealing $2.5 million, the collective value of his congregants' houses and other liabilities. ''I thank God'' for McCall's arrest, said parishioner Franchesca Causey, who tracked down court documents to show parishioners that McCall was a charlatan. ''This is sending a message to preachers -- you are not going to continue to steal in the name of Jesus,'' Causey said. McCall, disheveled and in handcuffs, did not respond to questions as he was led to processing yesterday at the San Francisco Hall of Justice. His lawyer, Eric Safire, called the case against McCall politically motivated and scoffed at the $1 million bail for a man who dutifully appeared at the pulpit every Sunday for more than a decade. ''There is very little evidence to show there was any illegal activity,'' Safire said. ''It was a bad business deal.'' The case tore asunder the once 300-strong congregation on Third Street. Only 80 die-hard followers remain, including two couples who helped McCall by refinancing their homes and have continued to stick by the preacher. Prosecutors condemned McCall as a man who misused the trust his parishioners placed in him. ''Here you got a guy living the high life off the sweat equity and the trust of elderly congregants,'' said Debra Hayes, chief of the district attorney's special prosecutions unit. ''It's an outrage. This will wipe these people out.'' Hayes said the ''cute little scheme'' dated back to 1988, when McCall met with families in his congregation and asked them to help him rebuild the church. The pastor asked them to take loans on their homes. In turn, he would make the monthly interest payments and pay off the balance when he refinanced the church. McCall secretly refinanced in 1991. For a while, he continued making monthly payments, while at the same time buying properties and a Porsche worth $52,000. McCall told the congregants in June 1996 that he could no longer make the payments. Unbeknownst to his flock, McCall had used some of the money to bail out his then- girlfriend, who was ultimately convicted of embezzling money from an escrow office she co-owned in Southern California. McCall then went into bankruptcy. Documents show he was taking in more than $13,000 monthly in ''love offerings'' from his congregation. In January, faced with the loss of their mortgaged homes, the seven couples approached the district attorney's office. Hayes said McCall was a master at drawing in worshipers, even though the congregation at a church in Alabama had kicked him out and he had left another parish in Minnesota under a cloud. 'He's very persuasive,'' Hayes said. ''He can make you feel that your shoes are untied when you are wearing loafers.'' Investigators got a break in the case last month when they stumbled onto key financial documents that survived a fire of suspicious origin at McCall's rented condominium on Sutter Street. They found more than $1,400 in cash as well as tax documents, bank account records and other evidence. ''I considered it a godsend,'' Hayes said. Authorities said the May 26 fire was started by candles kept lighted for days inside the Nob Hill condo. A candle was found on a table with cash in what appeared to be a ritualistic blessing of the money. McCall has refused to answer questions surrounding the fire. Safire dismissed any suspicions about the blaze. ''A candle caused the sprinkler to go off,'' he said. Causey said yesterday that parishioners would carry on at the church, even though they may lose the building to lenders. Safire said McCall was in the process of paying the debt when he was arrested, but some parishioners laughed at the assertion. Causey marveled at how McCall mesmerized his congregation and convinced select members to put their homes at risk. ''I could not believe we had been raped for 13 years,'' she said. ''This guy was good. He would convince each group and say, 'Now God is going to bless you, don't say a thing.' '' sfgate.com