A federal judge has ruled that a West Palm Beach, Florida church and its pastors should be ready to turn over about $2 million in donations from a parishioner accused of running a $30 million Ponzi scheme, The Palm Beach Post is reporting.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, in a decision released last week, said Winners Church and pastors Frederick and Whitney Shipman should get set to turn over the money. Federal regulators say the funds belong to hundreds of victims of a diamond and cryptocurrency scam, according to the newspaper.
This is huge,” said attorney Jeffrey Schneider, who was appointed to recover money for those who have accused Winners Church member Jose Aman and his business partners, Harold and Jonathan Seigel of bilking them. “I imagine I’ll be in possession of the funds in fairly short order.”
The Shipmans had claimed that they and the church were entitled to the money because state law exempts donations to religious organizations from seizure. But Rosenberg rejected their claims.
The Palm Beach Post had reported that Aman, who had been a director of the church, is accused of working with Canadian financial commentator Harold Seigel to allegedly bilk investors.
The church stands to lose about $1.2 million it received from Aman, while Frederick Shipman would lose $729,000 and his son, Whitney, would lose about $50,000. The two are not accused of being involved in the scheme, according to the newspaper.
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