It has happened again. Twenty-five years after the Donald Davenport loan scandal, unwary Adventist church members in Southern California and elsewhere became targets for a smooth-talking investment promoter from Florida. Responding to promises of high returns with “absolutely no risk,” made by Jamaica-born Winston George Ross, 57, of Apopka, Florida, some 250 people across the United States were bilked of more than $4 million. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas A. Axel, Ross was tried and convicted last July in a Federal court in Los Angeles on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, and on November 7, 2005, was sentenced to 155 months in prison. He was also ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real to pay back $4.3 million.

It all started out so innocently. As told in a telephone conversation by one of his Adventist victims, Dene Tyler, member of the Pacoima, California, church, Ross was recommended by the pastor for his reputation as an investment adviser. Ross was introduced to the congregation by the pastor; then, in a series of “seminars” Ross conducted, attendees were told how to incorporate themselves in order to lower income taxes they would pay on investment proceeds.

Ross represented himself as an Adventist and began each of his meetings with solemn prayer. At first he brokered investments from individuals, sending the money to other investment programs. Then he set up a “10 percent Program,” in which he guaranteed returns of at least 10 percent a month for 15 months. For larger sums of $100,000 or more he would pay 12 percent a month, and for $300,000 it would be 15 percent, every month.

This sounded to Tyler almost too good to be true, and she deliberated for three months about participating. She had some money resulting from the sale of a house and wanted to invest it wisely. She talked to the pastor, who assured her he was convinced of its value and planned to invest himself; and she engaged in earnest prayer Scam Artist Targeting Adventists Arrested for guidance. Ross, along with other Adventist pastors from out of state, made repeated visits to the church to keep the fervor going. Other members were mortgaging their houses; one even took on a $300,000 credit-card debt. Finally Tyler “took the dive,” turned over her money, and for a couple of months began to get the promised returns. She was still uneasy, however, and tried to dissuade questioning friends from participating.

The day came, however, when Ross was not getting enough new money to make the promised payments on the old notes, and the scheme collapsed. Tyler discovered she was left holding the bag.

I asked Tyler what she thought in retrospect about her prayers for guidance and the faith she had put in the pastor. She was philosophical about it. “It was my own fault,” she said. “I should have known better. Maybe this experience will help me give some advice to other people.” At least she didn’t have a mountain of credit-card debt. In the meantime she must find a job and try to get her life back on track again.

Others in the church may not take the situation so lightly. Some question whether pastors ought to be better educated in finance if they expect to counsel parishioners. And some who sought guidance in their daily prayers have begun to think more critically about the “inner voice” they listen to. For all who lost so heavily, the question looms about how quickly this con artist, once out of jail 13 years from now, will be able to regain his fortunes enough to pay them back, court order or not.

While Ross found rich hunting grounds among Adventists, he did not overlook other faiths. Records show that in Alabama, he wooed Church of Christ congregations with similar pious posturing, and they too subscribed to his schemes. Now they, too, have occasion to consider whether some kind of inborn greed may have colored their perceptions of “what God wanted them to do.”

When efforts were made to contact the Adventist pastor in Southern California through his voicemail, there was no response.

p.5 adventist today | vol. 14 issue 1