Indictment charges church leaders with swindling millions in military
benefits
[September 12, 2025]
By RUSS BYNUM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Leaders of a Georgia-based church with
congregations in five states have been charged by federal prosecutors
with swindling millions of dollars in veterans benefits from
parishioners serving in the military.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Savannah
charges House of Prayer Christian Churches of America founder Rony Denis
and seven other church leaders with conspiring to commit bank fraud and
wire fraud, as well as other federal crimes.
Authorities say church leaders exploited soldiers and other congregation
members by enrolling them in seminary programs that drained their G.I.
Bill education benefits. They also say church officials used
parishioners' names on fraudulent mortgage applications to buy homes
that the church then rented to congregation members.
“The defendants are accused of exploiting trust, faith, and even the
service of our nation’s military members to enrich themselves,” Paul
Brown, the agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta office, said in a news
release.
Prosecutors say church raked in $23 million from veterans benefits
Prosecutors say they don't even know the real name of Denis, alleging he
assumed that name after stealing another person's identity in 1983. He
founded House of Prayer roughly two decades ago. The church is
headquartered in Hinesville, a southeast Georgia city that is home to
thousands of veterans and Army soldiers serving at neighboring Fort
Stewart. The congregation there grew to as many as 300 members, the
indictment says.
House of Prayer branched out, opening up to a dozen churches in five
states, often near military bases, according to prosecutors. It also
established affiliated Bible seminaries in Hinesville as well as
Fayetteville, North Carolina; Killeen, Texas; and Tacoma, Washington.
The indictment says the church focused on recruiting military service
members to join their congregations and pressured them to spend their
G.I. Bill education benefits on enrollment in its seminary programs.
The seminaries in all four states earned House of Prayer leaders $23.5
million in G.I. Bill payments for tuition, fees, books and housing costs
from 2013 and 2021, according to the indictment.
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Charges against Denis and others stem from just $3.2 million of
those benefit payments made to House of Prayer's two seminaries in
Georgia. That is because the programs operated in Georgia under a
religious exemption granted by state regulators. Prosecutors say
that exemption prohibited the Georgia seminaries from receiving
federal funding — including G.I. Bill benefits from the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs.
The indictment says church officials lied to Georgia regulators in
annual forms saying the seminaries received no federal money.
Steven Sadow, listed in court records as an attorney for Denis, did
not immediately return an email message seeking comment Thursday.
A group called Veterans Education Success wrote to the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs in 2020, saying former students had
complained that the House of Prayer seminaries had drained their
benefits while providing them with little education. FBI agents
served search warrants on several House of Prayer churches in 2022,
according to local news outlets.
Church accused of profiting off rental homes bought with false
documents
The indictment says church officials also used its members as straw
buyers to conceal the leaders' purchase of rental properties.
Prosecutors say church leaders falsified loan applications and
closing documents and forged powers of attorney to buy and transfer
homes that were rented to congregation members.
The indictment says House of Prayer received $5.2 million in rent
payments between 2018 and 2020, with some of that money being used
to pay for Denis' two homes as well as church leaders' credit card
bills.
Denis was also charged with helping falsify his federal income tax
returns for 2018, 2019 and 2020. On Wednesday, FBI agents and
Columbia County sheriff's deputies arrested the church founder at
his mansion in Martinez west of Augusta, WRDW-TV reported.
In a separate case, federal prosecutors also indicted Bernadel
Semexant, a pastor at the House of Prayer church in Hinesville. The
indictment unsealed Wednesday charges Semexant with sex abuse of a
girl between the ages of 12 and 15. William Joseph Turner, listed in
court records as the pastor's attorney, did not immediately return
an email message.
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