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A minister at Christian Assembly in Forest Hills, Isaac Ovid, was arrested and charged with running a Ponzi scheme. (Photo by Jason DeCrow / April 7, 2009)
The minister also was a confidence man, according to federal officials.
FBI agents have arrested an ordained minister, Isaac Ovid, who operated out of a posh office in 2005 in what is now Reckson Plaza in Uniondale and fleeced 100 members of his Forest Hills church out of $9.3 million in a Ponzi scheme, federal officials say.
He used the money from congregants at the church, the Local Christian Assembly on 70th Avenue, to support a "lavish lifestyle," which included a $200,000 Bentley, jewelry, clothing and meals, according to court papers in the case and sources.
In addition, $2 million from congregants was spent on an upscale refurbishing of the Reckson Plaza office of Jadis Capital, an investment firm that Ovid also operated, federal officials said.
Many of the victims, who included elderly and disabled people, were from the Westbury area, according to the court papers and sources. They were promised returns of up to 75 percent.
Ovid was arrested by FBI agents in Tampa, Fla., last week, when he was returning from Trinidad, where he had been living. He is scheduled to be taken to New York next week by marshals, where he is to be arraigned on fraud charges in federal court, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn.
An attorney who had recently been representing Ovid did not return several calls seeking comment. Joseph Coleman, the senior pastor of the Assembly church, also did not return calls to his home and to the church.
Ovid set up Jadis in 2004 with "other senior members of the church," according to an FBI arrest warrant. The other church members were not identified in the warrant and have not been charged.
Initially, Ovid used $445,000 of his own money to fund Jadis Capital as an investment advisory business for private clients, including some church members, the court papers say. But he and his associates also set up an investment fund, named the Logos Fund, which they marketed to members of the church and others as a safe investment vehicle, the papers say.
Investors were not advised that Ovid secretly controlled the fund, which took in the $9.3 million, the court papers say. Officials declined to identify any victims.
When Ovid lost almost all of the $445,000 he had initially put up to start Jadis, he began using the Logos money to keep that business afloat, the court papers say.
At one point, $554,000 church members had paid into Logos was used to cover losses by private clients of Jadis, the papers say.
Eventually, the money from the church members was used almost solely to support Jadis, including its employees' salaries, rent, office equipment, utilities and Ovid's lifestyle, according to the court papers.
According to the arrest warrant, Ovid sent letters to some Logos investors, saying their investments were "now positioned to reap the benefits of the Jadis Capital prudent investment strategy. . . . Jadis is committed to the well-being of each shareholder and their families."
One victim who was promised a return of 75 percent on an investment of $500,000 received only $7,400, the court papers say.
Duane 3NE 2NR wrote:Ponzi Scheme
n.
An investment swindle in which high profits are promised from fictitious sources and early investors are paid off with funds raised from later ones.
the nicest person you could ever meet is a con man~*§ãñCħїą*~ wrote:Guys..
Honestly tho.. I haven't spoken to him since this happened, but Isaac was a really nice guy. But maybe he was nice to me and my co-workers because we were broke!
But he is a genuine person, his father is even a pastor here in Trinidad.
pioneer wrote:God made him do it, it was the right thing to do.
pioneer wrote:that good for him...they should investigate ALL pastors
pastor *cough cough* cuffy
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