Pastor Quiboloy’s Church in Los Angeles Raided by FBI Due To Human Trafficking Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church in Los Angeles led by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
On Wednesday (January 30, 2020), FBI agents raided the Philippines-based church in Los Angeles in a human trafficking investigation. The authorities arrest two church leaders for allegedly tricking followers to raise funds.
The US attorney’s office said that the two church leaders were arrested on immigration fraud charges. One of the workers who confiscated the passports of the poor victims of the schemes has been also arrested.
In February 2018, US Customs official briefly held Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ after gun parts and cash amounting $350,000 were found in his private plane.
FBI said that the fundraisers confessed that the church sent them across the United States to solicit donations for the church charity “The Children’s Joy Foundation”. The workers were allegedly beaten if they could not meet their daily quotas.
According to an FBI agent probing the case, around 82 sham marriages over a 20-year period have been recorded and $20 million has been raised between 2014 until the middle of 2019.
“Most of these funds appear to derive from street-level solicitation, Little to no money solicited appears to benefit impoverished or in-need children,” FBI Special Agent Anne Wetzel said.
The federal agents are now conducting searches at other Los Angeles locations and two other placed in Hawaii linked to the church after raiding church’s Van Nuys compound.
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