Former Va. pastor gets federal prison time for life insurance scam
September 19, 2014 by IFAwebnews Staff
The founder and former pastor of a Chesterfield, Va., church was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for scamming at least 1,249 people nationally out of $240,000 with false promises of obtaining universal life insurance policies for a one-time $25 fee.
Nathaniel A. McNeil Jr., 46, former president of Life Transformation Ministries International, was ordered to spend 68 months in jail by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. McNeil, who now lives in Pensacola, Fla., must also pay $32,835 in restitution to the victims who authorities were able to identify.
McNeil pleaded guilty June 12 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Authorities said McNeil and his former girlfriend, Trudi L. Batiste, 42, conspired to commit mail fraud in connection with the so-called church’s insurance promotions between 2009 and 2011 that failed to provide any insurance policies to the people who paid.
The victims spanned 25 states and included 59 members of the Fountain of Life Outreach Church in Hopewell, Va., who collectively paid $1,180 for individual insurance policies in a check that was mailed to a post office box for Life Transformation Ministries in Chesterfield. None of the individuals who paid the approximately $25 fee ultimately obtained a life insurance policy.
In May, Batiste pleaded guilty in federal court in Richmond to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30.
To induce individuals and church congregations to participate in his life insurance program, McNeil held himself out as a ‘Consecrated Apostle’ and routinely touted his ‘ministry’ as a nonprofit organization with an economic development fund that would provide money to build schools, houses and churches, prosecutors said.
“To further his scheme, McNeil also tried to scam several insurance companies by misrepresenting in insurance applications the net worth of his ministry and that applicants were his employees,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
McNeil and Batiste would spend all the money they received as quickly as they collected it for personal expenses, including spa treatments and clothing, prosecutors said.