A Monroe County, Missouri church official was arrested Friday after having been indicted and accused of participating in a more than $1.2 million pandemic loan fraud scheme.
Kenneth C. Sparks III, 54, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Florida. A grand jury indicted Sparks on July 17 with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
The indictment showed that at the time of the allegations, Sparks worked as a visiting minister at Faith Walk Ministry, a church in Paris, Missouri. Harold G. Long was the church’s lead minister and chief executive officer, Mya M. McClain was an administrative assistant, and Javonte D. Long was a member. Jeffrey C. Oboite lived in Maryland and operated businesses called Angel’s Management Group LLC, Emerald Score LLC and O&S Construction LLC.
Oboite and McClain were indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and seven counts of wire fraud. Harold Long faces one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Javonte Long faces one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.
The indictment said Oboite taught Sparks and McClain how to submit fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Oboite and Sparks both submitted or caused to be submitted fraudulent loan applications in their own names, and received at least $200,000, the indictment says.
Included among those fraudulently obtained loans was $147,900 from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, the indictment says. The EIDL program was another Small Business Administration program intended to help struggling business owners during the pandemic.
The indictment stated that the conspirators also obtained more than $1 million in PPP loans in the names of others. Sparks abused his position of authority as a minister by obtaining the trust of church members and then obtained their personal and financial information to seek loans in their name, the indictment says. The indictment disclosed that Harold Long assured church members that Sparks could be trusted with that information.
It said Sparks also claimed he was an “Apostle” of God, whose decisions and decrees could not be questioned. Sparks sometimes told church members that they needed to provide their personal and financial information so he and others could fix their credit scores, the indictment says, or that their information would be used to secure funding for the church.
It mentioned that Sparks told McClain to create email addresses in the name of church members and told parishioners to open new accounts at a credit union. The indictment says Sparks also commissioned the creation of false and fraudulent tax documents.
The indictment also revealed that Sparks and Oboite also told McClain and Harold Long to submit fraudulent PPP loan applications for businesses purportedly owned by Long. The indictment noted that when suspicious credit union officials froze some parishioners’ accounts, Sparks and Oboite coached church members on the lies they should tell bank officials to free the funds.
The indictment stated that sparks reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme and used the money for luxury vehicles, clothing and merchandise.
Charges outlined in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Each aggravated identity theft count carries a mandatory, consecutive two-year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, the defendants have pleaded not guilty and “it will probably be some months before the next development in the case,” a source told TCS.
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