California Pastor Pleads Guilty To Masterminding 33million Scam

A pastor has pleaded guilty to masterminding a $33million scam with a church-based investment scheme.
Kent Whitney, 38, of Newport Beach, southern [/news/california/index.html California], swindled members of the local Vietnamese community to invest in his church.
But the already convicted conman took the money for tour sapa himself and splurged it on a lavish lifestyle. 
Kent Whitney, 38, of Newport Beach, southern California, (pictured middle in blue shirt) swindled members of the local Vietnamese community to invest in his church
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He now faces up to 23 years in jail after on Wednesday entering a plea agreement for mail fraud and filing a false income tax return. 
Whitney set up the Church for the Healthy Self, run out of a strip mall in the Little Saigon area in Westminster.
Whitney founded the church in 2014, three months after he finished serving a 44-month prison sentence for tour sapa từ hà nội a commodities investment fraud, authorities said.
It was shut down last year after the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint and a judge froze the church's assets.
Whitney faces up to 23 years in jail after on Wednesday entering a plea agreement for mail fraud and filing a false income tax return
The nonprofit was a 'virtual church' that provided religious offerings online but mainly served as an investment operation that targeted the Vietnamese community in Orange County, according to an SEC complaint.
In his plea agreement, Whitney said that from 2014 to 2019, he scammed investors in a church trust fund out of some $33million by falsely claiming their money was safe and guaranteeing a high, tax-deductible return from investment in the reinsurance industry.
In fact, much of the money went to fund a lavish lifestyle, authorities said.