Scam Everlasting? After 25 Years, Debunked Faith Healer Still Preaching Debt Relief

The Business of Salvation

I got off easy, of course. Janet Morgano was a single mother of two living in Boynton Beach, Florida. She was taken in by Popoff’s claims of debt cancellation, initially sending him between $20 and $30 at a time.

Then, in late 2010, Popoff sent a letter asking for $1,001. Morgano wound up mailing him over $300, money she desperately needed as she struggled to recover from a car accident and pay her monthly bills.

“I felt foolish, I felt betrayed, I was very upset,” Morgano told a reporter with KABC, the ABC affiliate n Los Angeles.

Other victims have written in web forums, including Christian Issues, edited by Brian Karjala of Colorado Springs, who received a letter from Popoff in 1997. Numerous posters on the site tell of being scammed and warn other Christians to stay away. While most people say they mailed Popoff less than $100, one person writes to say that their father sent $1,000.

[Article: Dealing with Debt While Unemployed]

“He has squeezed some money out of me as well,” one person wrote. “Desperate for support from the high, I went along with it because I so badly wanted answers.”

Some desperate people must have been conned into mailing Popoff hundreds or even thousands of dollars, as we can infer from his tax returns from 2005. (That’s the last year for which tax information is available because in 2006 Peter Popoff Ministries changed from a for-profit business into a religious organization, making it tax-exempt.) The company received $24.5 million in 2005, and it owned properties valued at $5.1 million. The tax forms don’t require Popoff to say where he received the money, other than describing the sources as “Contributions, gifts, grants.”

Popoff himself took $628,732 in compensation, plus another $48,000 for his role as board member and employee of other related entities. His wife Elizabeth took $202,920. Popoff’s son Nickolas received $181,811, and $176,008 went to his daughter Amy.

Another $1.9 million went to Kelly Media Group of Upland, California, for TV production. Kelly Media is owned by Popoff’s son-in-law, Jason Cardiff.

“He’s committing fraud in the name of God,” says Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation. “That’s what makes me angry.”

An IRS spokesman declined to tell Credit.com whether the agency is investigating Popoff. As a member of the powerful finance committee, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) conducted an investigation of six popular televangelists (not including Popoff). After three years of study, Grassley released a report in January that expressed concerns about TV pastors’ lavish homes, jet planes and huge credit card expenses, but ultimately failed to reach any conclusions about whether the ministries were in violation of IRS rules. Instead, Grassley called on televangelists to police themselves.

“Self-correction can be more effective than government action,” Grassley said in a press release.

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