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Goodbye Jesus

Need Help: A Christian Conned Me Out Of $70k


DeanLautermilch

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In 2003, I had a 'Christian' businessman take advantage of me and take a 50K investment for a housing project on the island of Saint Lucia. I had inherited some money and did not know what to do and was still in the church at this time. The man had come highly recommend by the congregation. The money was to be used to build housing on the island of Saint Lucia. He took the money instead and bought a fish processing plant in Guyana. He promised the fish plant would provide a good return that would benefit all his investors. That was not the case and there were many delays. One night he told me an outright lie that if he only had 40K more for three days while he was refinancing his house the project would be completed. After repeated promises that the money would be for only three days, I stupidly agreed he could have it. He went on an extended road trip without a word to me. He did pay 20K back after two months and then moved away. He is sorry of course and had made one payment of 2500 and one of $5K but this is after hounding him relentlessly just to get an email answer and broken promises. His only excuse has been it is the Lord's doing so Jesus is at fault here as well in my opinion. He asks that I wait and leaves with a promise and then I hear nothing.

I have paid a terrible price with depression and anger over several years. I am not the only investor and others need to know about him running around the globe and taking money from others in the name of the Lord. There is a lot more to my account that would make it suited for a web site that will be hosted on ISP that provides Freedom of Speech hosting. I will document what happened to me with text, images, and links and then email links to the site to churches in the areas where he operates. I plan to include a section for comments as well as a message board. Since the bible explains that everything should be in the open, I will make this an issue for all to see. As the bible says in Mark 4:22 - For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.

The first order of business will be the URL. I want something that would make Christian want to read it out of curiosity. The person who took advantage of me is named Roy so :

www.jesusandroyrippedmeoff.com

www.christianconman.com

www.achristianconnedme.com

 

I would appreciate any suggestions for attention getting URLs. Once I have the URL picked, I will register, build the web site.

 

I doubt I will ever recover any of the funds but at least I will prevent some others from being victimized as I have and help show the world that Christianity is merely a way of controlling others for personal gain.

 

Thanks

 

Dean

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Personally I think you should move on. You made an unwise investment choice with a smooth talking shady guy. Dwelling on it is not going to get your money back. What is your motive here? Revenge? Not the best thing to dwell on 4 years later IMO.

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

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I am assuming you live in the United States. If so, contact the FBI. What this man has done is known as fraud. If you want to protect others from him, you will choose this route instead. Once he has been charged with fraud, you can then sue him for the rest of your money. If you set up your website, you will only be giving him ammunition to use against you later on, something you definitely do not want.

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Personally I think you should move on. You made an unwise investment choice with a smooth talking shady guy. Dwelling on it is not going to get your money back. What is your motive here? Revenge? Not the best thing to dwell on 4 years later IMO.

 

 

How about closure? I was in severe depression that came within a few hours of costing me my lift over this. I had sought treatment for depression with no success but when I read the simple statement that 'Depression = anger turned inward' did I understand this had poisoned me. If I could have moved on I would have.

At least my experienceexperiance will be an example of others to stay away from anyone taking money to to the 'Lawds' work.

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

 

 

A libel suit? So he already took all of my money and I am supposed to cower in fear that he might sue me or get this in court where I could fight back? My problem was I did not fight back from the beginning.

I've been in court a few times, no fear on my part of going there again.

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If you damage someones reputation in writing and anyone can see it it is called libel. It's a tort law where the courts would award him damages for hurt feelings, etc.. Essentially he would get more of your money as a punishment to you for defaming him. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't even consider it. Trust me, it's not worth it.

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Guest The Whettening

Sounds like you got screwed...

 

But did you sign a contract with this guy? If not, any "investment" you made, could be used for whatever he wanted.

 

Your websites, could be construed as libel, as could your posts in this forum.

 

The most you could recover from this, if you could win a fraud case would be roughly 25,000. According to you, he paid back more than half of your initial investment. The other 40k that you gave to him, according to you was a loan. You cannot sue for this under fraud, and if a written contract was never formed dictating repayment, you might just be SOL in that share of the money.

 

IMO, coming on a forum to bitch about your loss, is a stupid idea. Get real legal advice. You could possibly have a legitmate fraud suit as well as quite a few differents torts if you were to take this guy to civil court, but putting up your websites could discredit you.

 

Get real legal advice, go to the authorities, and don't waste your time complaining about poor investments. And don't vote for Hillary Clinton. She won't help you!

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Get real legal advice, go to the authorities, and don't waste your time complaining about poor investments.

 

Damn boy, you don't have to kick the boy while he's down.

 

Sure, he made a bad investment, is that any reason to rub it in?

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Guest The Whettening

I was trying to be helpful... crying about it isn't going to get any money back. It's useless to get legitamite advice from face-less people you've never met on a forum...

 

I do feel bad for him though, but it is a good lesson, to really look into the background of the person before hand. I do want this guy to go to the authorities and to bring the guy to justice, but I also want to make sure he gets the picture that he won't solve his problems by complaining about it.

 

Best,

 

Teh_Wisdom

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Even though there may have been no actual written contract, by Dean's description, it sure sounds like there was a verbal one, which, while more difficult to prove in a court of law, may be found equally as binding. It wouldn't be a difficult case to make, since people rarely give others "Gifts" of money that run into thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars.

 

Go to the FBI. What would it hurt? If your intent is to indeed protect others from this person, making a case against him is the first step. That way, if he has, or does, con other people out of their money as well, it will show up. You will have strength in numbers. This kind of con man exists because people don't go to the FBI and fight to get their money back. It's easy to automatically assume that the person who has been conned should have been more diligent; but to that, I say the person who was entrusted with the money should have been more careful about other people's finances and fully deserves criminal prosecution for his negligence.

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

 

 

A libel suit? So he already took all of my money and I am supposed to cower in fear that he might sue me or get this in court where I could fight back? My problem was I did not fight back from the beginning.

I've been in court a few times, no fear on my part of going there again.

 

I'd talk to a lawyer first, and if he or she says go for it, then go for it.

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

 

 

A libel suit? So he already took all of my money and I am supposed to cower in fear that he might sue me or get this in court where I could fight back? My problem was I did not fight back from the beginning.

I've been in court a few times, no fear on my part of going there again.

 

I'd talk to a lawyer first, and if he or she says go for it, then go for it.

 

A lawyer is a waste of time in this case. So are other forms of law enforment.

This man markets himself as 'super Christian' and I have decided to make the website about myself and my exit from Christianity and feature my dealings with him that I can prove with documentation and witnessses.

I've been on this site for a while and read many of the accounts others have had exiting the Christian cult. I will add mine but I want it on a website.

As for threats of lawsuits, truth is a defense to libel. Anyway, if I were to be sued, I would welcome it as I have been on several juries and am not fearful of all for my peers to pass judgment on what happend to me. Can anyone say 'countersuit'?

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

 

 

A libel suit? So he already took all of my money and I am supposed to cower in fear that he might sue me or get this in court where I could fight back? My problem was I did not fight back from the beginning.

I've been in court a few times, no fear on my part of going there again.

 

I'd talk to a lawyer first, and if he or she says go for it, then go for it.

 

A lawyer is a waste of time in this case. So are other forms of law enforment.

This man markets himself as 'super Christian' and I have decided to make the website about myself and my exit from Christianity and feature my dealings with him that I can prove with documentation and witnessses.

I've been on this site for a while and read many of the accounts others have had exiting the Christian cult. I will add mine but I want it on a website.

As for threats of lawsuits, truth is a defense to libel. Anyway, if I were to be sued, I would welcome it as I have been on several juries and am not fearful of all for my peers to pass judgment on what happend to me. Can anyone say 'countersuit'?

 

Dean, you're going to do what you're going to do. However, I think your thinking is twisted. I don't know where you live. Lautermilch is a German word/name meaning pure milk, I think. Maybe you're not in the United States. I think the advice given above applies to American situations, but other Western countries have laws very similar to American laws. So here is what I see you saying/doing:

 

1. You will exit Christianity because you hate what a certain Christian did to you. I think that's less than clear thinking but you have that right.

 

2. You seem to think that because he markets himself as a "super Christian" he is legally untouchable. NOT SO.

 

3. You say: As for threats of lawsuits, truth is a defense to libel.

 

Listen, Dean, there is no guarantee that truth will win out in this case. If what you described actually happened, this man is a fraud from day 1. What you are planning to do is a legal violation. If you hope for justice, at least try the legal route before trying to make a wrong right with another wrong. Like they say, two wrongs never make a right.

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Something I've learned about Church is that con artists have easy marks there. We (I and friends in church) saw several of serious scams from people that claimed to have the "holy spirit" etc. Once we were hit (church members fooled) by a guy that was wanted by Interpol. No one knew, and everyone is so gullible already from their belief in the invisible magician that never do anything, so most Christians are naive and trust anyone that say the right things and claim to be have the same colors. One of the dangers of religion.

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Something I've learned about Church is that con artists have easy marks there. We (I and friends in church) saw several of serious scams from people that claimed to have the "holy spirit" etc. Once we were hit (church members fooled) by a guy that was wanted by Interpol. No one knew, and everyone is so gullible already from their belief in the invisible magician that never do anything, so most Christians are naive and trust anyone that say the right things and claim to be have the same colors. One of the dangers of religion.

 

Right. We were all scammed in a sense. Most of us didn't lose 70K, but we lost time, a huge portion of our lives, our identities if we were in a fundy church, and quite a bit of money in donations over the years. I wonder how many thousands of dollars it would be added up. But we learned from our mistakes and went on with our lives.

 

You're going to do what you want to do anyway. That's just my two dollars (adjusted for inflation ;)).

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That's just my two dollars (adjusted for inflation ;) ).

 

About time! :HaHa:

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If what he is doing is illegal (and it sounds like he is), get law enforcement involved. You know where the grifter is, if you can get proof of what he is doing (or have some) bust him. Be careful if you do set up a site like this that you don't expose yourself to a libel suit. I'd try other chanels before blowing his identity wide open on the web.

 

 

A libel suit? So he already took all of my money and I am supposed to cower in fear that he might sue me or get this in court where I could fight back? My problem was I did not fight back from the beginning.

I've been in court a few times, no fear on my part of going there again.

 

I'd talk to a lawyer first, and if he or she says go for it, then go for it.

I would say go for it too, but just make sure you can back up your claims. You don't want to be caught without evidence of the truth. Don't make it a s/he said\s/he said type of deal. You might lose in that situation.

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I was trying to be helpful... crying about it isn't going to get any money back. It's useless to get legitamite advice from face-less people you've never met on a forum...

 

I do feel bad for him though, but it is a good lesson, to really look into the background of the person before hand. I do want this guy to go to the authorities and to bring the guy to justice, but I also want to make sure he gets the picture that he won't solve his problems by complaining about it.

 

Best,

 

Teh_Wisdom

 

I appreciate you saying you do feel bad for him.

 

My thing is this, there's a difference between crying and venting, and that initial post was much more venting to us. If he were to continue on and on after that, it would be crying.

 

True, complaining won't solve it, but it is good to just get things out so then you can get to solving them.

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