All language subtitles for American Greed s12e15 An Ungodly Scammer.eng

In this episode of American Greed, he
was the sweet -talking son of a preacher

man. He came out like a Southern
Baptist, Holy Ghost -filled, fire

preacher.

Ephraim Taylor II is a big talker. I
taught myself how to program computers

making games, selling them to my
friends. I ended up in high school

.4 million firm.

But he isn't so sweet.

What we find heinous about this crime is
that he was taking advantage of people

in their places of worship.

He came across as a man of God.

Taylor found success early. Young and
rich, and we're talking very young and

very rich for Taylor.

Sharing his wealth -building Bible
-based secrets with the faithful at

megachurches across the country.

Taylor offers the devout an investment
opportunity, he says, as God's stamp of

approval. He would often tell people
that they would gain 2 ,400 % on their

investment. As a Christian, a servant of
God, you want to be wise with the

wealth that God gives you, and you want
to make it multiply.

But when God -fearing investors hand
their life savings over to this prophet

prosperity, there's only one problem.

It was a lie.

We've been hoodwinked and bamboozled.

All that money is gone.

In October 2009, Ephraim Taylor, CEO of
the socially conscious

investment development group, City
Capital.

is making his way through the Bible
Belt, pitching his brand on his Building

Wealth Tour.

He recently appeared on television
programs like The Today Show and 2020,

promoting his best -selling book,
Creating Success from the Inside Out.

On this day, he visits New Birth
Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch

in the heart of Georgia.

Prior to his arrival, Taylor's
promotional video is shown to the

piquing their interest.

Good morning. I'm Ephraim Taylor, and I
would like to thank Bishop Long for his

sending such a gracious invitation to
bring Wealth Tour Live to your beautiful

congregation at New Birth.

Taylor's Wealth Tour is recorded on
video.

In attendance that day is congregant
James J .B. Bailey, who was impressed by

the endorsement of Bishop Long,
reflected prominently on this flyer.

When Ephraim Taylor was introduced by
Bishop, he gave us great confidence that

this was a man sent to us by God.

In the recorded video, Bishop Eddie Long
readies the congregation for Taylor's

message. Your life is about to change.

If Bishop said he's okay, then he's
okay.

Put your hands together and receive my
friend, my brother, the great Ephraim

Taylor. The self -proclaimed wealth
manager is also the son of a preacher

practiced at the art of mesmerizing a
congregation, as this video shows.

Taylor teaches about health, wealth, and

how to get both God's way.

Swept up in this fervor is J .B. Bailey.

He came out like a Southern Baptist,
Holy Ghost -filled, fire -baptized

preacher.

He was pretty electrified.

He really kept my attention and
everybody else's.

Bailey is the caregiver for his longtime

friend Larry, who suffers from
encephalopathy, a brain disorder.

The timing of Taylor's arrival couldn't
be more fortuitous.

Ethan Taylor's WEF tour was announced
over the pulpit.

I felt that this would be wonderful
because we had just acquired monies from

Larry's Insurance.

And I wanted to make sure we did the
best that we could for it.

Bailey listens to Taylor's pitch and
likes what he hears.

Ephraim Taylor talked to us about so
many wonderful avenues of investing and

things to fortify our financial
knowledge.

You really felt like this man is
brilliant.

Bailey decides to invest $14 ,000 with
Taylor and City Capital.

He's hoping the return on investment
will provide better care for his friend

Larry. But by the time Taylor's building
wealth tour comes to an end, 400

believers, including J .B. Bailey, will
be bilked out of more than $16 million.

Ephraim Taylor promised to help others.

so they could help their communities.

But Ethan Taylor was really in the
business of helping himself.

What we find heinous about this crime is
that he was taking advantage of people

in their places of worship.

He said that he was a minister's son,
had grown up in a black church, and

who he was victimizing, was people in
black churches.

According to the story Taylor tells in
his book, he spends the first year of

life in a cold -water, tin -roof house
in Mississippi.

Taylor's father, Ephraim Sr., wanting
more for his family, earns a college

degree and the family eventually settles
in Oberlin Park, Kansas.

By age 12, Taylor turns his passion into
cash.

Well, according to the Ephraim Taylor
myth, as a young child, he wanted a

game, went to his mom asking for money
to buy one. She turned him down and

why don't you go make one yourself?

So Ephraim did.

He went to the library and set it up on
how to create a video game and sold it

to his friends.

Young Ephraim gets his first taste of
professional success and likes how it

feels. At age 16, he creates a job
search engine with a classmate called

GoFerretGo .com. The idea behind
GoFerret .com was to match teenagers who

needed summer jobs with companies that
needed summer help.

Taylor wins the Microsoft Teen Tech Fest
Challenge, a prestigious nationwide

contest, and is awarded an
Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholarship.

shines a spotlight on the rising star,
and the money follows.

Or so he says.

He from Taylor claims GoFairGo .com made
him a millionaire by the time he was

19.

The young entrepreneur routinely brags
that it's worth $3 .5 million, allowing

him to retire as a teenager.

Kathy Lerman is a plaintiff's attorney
who represents victims of financial

fraud. There was never $3 .5 million
worth of... Anything in GoFerret Go.

Ephraim told that story from the time he
was 16 until he was 25.

As seen in these videos posted on
YouTube.

And everyone bought into it.

A lot of investors felt that GoFerret
.com had promise.

But within a year or so, they realized
it was not going to be a moneymaker. And

they pulled the plug.

They never made a dime.

In 2002, Taylor comes out of retirement
to help his father fulfill a dream.

They found the Johnson County Church of
Christ in Shawnee, Kansas, where Ephraim

Sr. will preside as minister.

Ephraim Jr.

calls on his church community to invest
in his plan to help needy families and

resurrect distressed communities.

Ephraim said that he was a socially
conscious investor.

That's the pitch that he was giving to
congregants. The socially conscious

aspect of his spiel made him seem very
altruistic.

A person who was not just interested in
money, he was interested in community

and people.

One of the first red flags that
something was amiss with the Ephraim

story.

was the lawsuit that was filed by three
Kansas City area men.

In the lawsuit, the men say Taylor,
claiming to be speaking on behalf of the

Johnson County Church of Christ,
convinces them to invest in his plan to

rehab inner city houses.

Ephron's selling points to the three
Kansas City investors in convincing them

hand over their quarter million dollars
to him was that some of those proceeds

would go to...

further the ministry of his dad's
church.

He also promised high rates of returns
to investors.

They thought it was a great opportunity
to do good and also to make money.

It's unclear what Ephraim did with the
$225 ,000 investment money, but the deal

falls apart.

Taylor is sued by the three Kansas City
investors.

Although he denies any wrongdoing,
Taylor signs a confession of judgment

agrees to return the investors' money,
but eventually defaults. Those victims

never got their money back.

Ephraim Taylor Sr.

has not been implicated in any of his
son's activities.

In 2005, Bank of America decides not to
proceed on a planned $46 million

development project near the Kansas City
Historic Jazz District.

home to the American Jazz and the Negro
Leagues Baseball Museum.

The Kansas City jazz scene of the 1930s
and 40s produced lots of big hits at the

time. Count Basie and others played
there.

In recent years, that district had
fallen into disrepair.

Taylor sees an opportunity and purchases
a large portion of the surrounding land

for $300 ,000.

Taylor claims to be building hundreds of
homes for the working class.

The community is excited about the
promising plans for the historic

It's not clear to me when he transformed
from a legitimate businessman to a

crook. But ultimately, he didn't put a
dime into building housing in the area,

and it sat fallow for years.

Despite the complete lack of progress in
the development, Taylor had the public

believing he had turned water into wine.

He actually acted like that historic
Jazz District investment was successful

that there were investors who had made a
ton of money on it.

City Capital, a Nevada -based company
that uses money from public stockholders

to invest in developing businesses,
takes notice.

They hire 23 -year -old Taylor as their
chief executive officer, hoping he is

the silver bullet needed to turn the
financially challenged company around.

When American Greed returns,

the self -proclaimed high -performance
visionary takes center stage.

He created a person in the media that
really didn't exist,

and that's how he was able to scam so
many people.

Son of a preacher and investment
entrepreneur, Ephraim Taylor is taking

world by storm.

I want you to meet Ephraim Taylor.

Ephraim, great to have you with us.
Young and rich, and we're talking very

and very rich. Our next whiz kid is
Ephraim Taylor.

And he has a new calling card. He's now
the youngest African -American of any

publicly traded company. That was one of
his favorite things.

The 25 -year -old releases his best
-selling self -empowerment book, and the

media is eating it up. Ephraim Taylor, a
Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Ephraim Taylor's book was part of his
strategy to show

his supposed intellect, investment
skills, business acumen,

and the fact that he was a success story
according to himself.

Taylor woos his audience with his rags
-to -riches story.

A little bit short on money for video
games, and my mom had challenged me to

an entrepreneur, forgot I'd make my own.
Started reading, taught myself how to

program computers and making games,
selling them to my friends.

Ended up in high school having a $3 .4
million firm, 13 employees. My high

school history teacher ended up working
for me.

He was living off of his myth, and each
TV appearance begat another one.

Efron Taylor running two public
companies now, a guy doing it all at the

old age of 24.

Good for you, man. Congratulations. He
won them all over with his impressive

business pedigree and his socially
conscious investment style. Efron Taylor

pitched what was called socially
conscious investing, essentially saying,

good with your money.

Invest in things that are good for the
community, that will help build the

community, while at the same time making
you money.

pledged that the money was always
invested in things for people in need or

communities in need, always to benefit
others.

You're a venture capitalist now.

I'm more of a social capitalist. Okay.

This was a win -win because you are
going to help people who are in your

community.

You are going to make a lot of money as
an investor.

He was on.

Every network you could think of.

It helped establish what I call the
Ephraim Taylor persona because he

a person in the media that really didn't
exist.

And that's how he was able to scam so
many people.

Ephraim used the fact that he appeared
on all these television shows as a way

get in the door and gain people's trust.
It gave him instant credibility when he

was pitching his products.

Taylor seizes the opportunity to use his
newfound fame to meet the flock.

Taylor takes his show on the road,
promoting his brand with the Building

Tour and traveling across the country.

He visits mega churches to preach
prosperity gospel and socially conscious

investing.

Taylor's looking for new recruits. He
would actually preach a sermon.

Then as soon as the sermon was over, he
would go into his invest with me spiel.

He would tell the congregation how
successful he is and how they, as

can help other people by investing with
him with his socially conscious

investing.

What is Taylor and City Capital's
winning pitch?

Promissory notes. Used to fund small
businesses like juice bars, laundromats,

and gas stations.

and provide housing for needy families
in often ignored inner city communities.

Promissory notes are essentially
documents that he finds saying, I will

back your money plus 20 % at the end of
the year. He claimed that he would use

the money from those promissory notes to
invest in small businesses around the

country. Unfortunately, he was using it
to steal people's money and no one was

helped by it.

When American greed returns.

The prophet of prosperity visits one of
the most mega of all mega churches and

uses the Bible as bait. He understood me
coming from a Christian perspective.

Reeling in a big pitch. The money that
we invested was her dad's life

savings.

In November 2008,

the Building Wealth Tour lands on the
doorstep of televangelist Joel Osteen's

Lakewood Mega Church in Houston, Texas,
where more than 50 ,000 worship every

week. Among the faithful are Gary and
Anita Dorio, who met and got married at

Lakewood. Lakewood Church, beautiful, is
the only way I can describe it.

Church everyone would want to go to.

It was like heaven.

And that you saw black people sitting
with white people, sitting with

sitting with Asian, and all worshiping
God together.

Anita's first visit to Lakewood changed
her life.

I had never been in the presence of God
like that.

And I would weep throughout the entire
praise and worship.

The Holy Spirit did something that had
never happened before.

I've never been in his presence like
that.

Being moved by the Holy Spirit is a hard
act to follow.

But Taylor did his best when he was
invited to a Lakewood Church classroom

give a presentation to several Lakewood
Church volunteers about biblical

financial principles or stories in the
Bible that promote prosperity.

Anita was in attendance at Lakewood
Church.

Biblical principles is investing wisely,
responsibly, and for

the purpose of furthering the kingdom,
but also God wants

us to be prosperous.

There was a series of different seminars
over a period of several weeks, and

one's called Don't Bury Your Talents.

During Taylor's seminar at Lakewood, he
lures potential investors in with the

Bible's parable of talents.

In it, those who take risks and invest
their talents or money are rewarded,

while those who bury or do nothing with
their talents are punished.

You want to be a wise investor. You want
to be wise with the wealth.

that God gives you, and I really
appreciated the fact that, you know, he

understood me coming from a Christian
perspective, and his dad was a pastor.

So those were, you know, some of the
reasons to want to trust him.

Following the presentation, Gary and
Anita Dorio meet privately with Taylor

find his sales pitch and paperwork to be
convincing.

Ephraim was charismatic, intelligent.

He was knowledgeable in what he was
talking about, and he seemed genuine.

Taylor also talks disparagingly about
traditional IRAs or individual

accounts. Playing to their Christian
sensibilities, he tells them some mutual

funds invest in ungodly businesses that
might not be in line with their

Christian beliefs, like strip clubs.

Which is definitely not something that
any of us. in that room would want to be

invested in or associated with.

So it's much more appealing to invest in
a company that is, you know, a dry

cleaner or a smoothie shop that helps
teenagers with after -school jobs, and

it's a profitable business. So it seems
like a win -win -win.

The Dorios consider the pros and cons of
the investment opportunity for several

weeks.

In these promissory notes, he was
detailing the amount of interest that

paid and how it would be paid.
Everything was written out. It seemed

doable. It was just a really good
investment.

Eventually, Taylor convinces the Dorios
to transfer their money into a self

-directed IRA.

A self -directed IRA allows investors to
control the type of businesses that

their money is benefiting.

So I like the idea with self -directed
IRAs that I could choose the businesses

that I wanted to invest in. Because with
traditional IRAs, you don't get to

choose.

Taylor, along with City Capital
employees, provide investors with

needed to transfer their savings from a
traditional IRA to a self -directed IRA

account.

Once investors signed over the use of
the funds to the self -directed IRA,

Taylor and City Capital had full use of
the funds.

The Dorios invest their entire life
savings with Ephraim Taylor and City

Capital's socially conscious
investments.

So I invested $1 .3 million, which was
my family's inheritance.

My dad worked for Texaco, and he always
contributed the maximum to his 401K.

And that is where the money came from.

Anita's father had set up a trust for
his wife, Anita, and her two siblings.

Number one priority was to take care of
his wife in her latter years.

Second was to take care of the children.

Anita requests an account statement
every quarter.

The statements looked good. I mean, they
were exactly what they needed to be. It

showed, you know, the money growing.

The Dorios become Taylor's number one
investor, putting in more money than

anyone else.

Initially, they were pleased with their
investment.

City Capital is paying them $11 ,000 a
month for almost a year.

Every month, the money was wired into
our account.

If Ephraim was in the Houston area, he
would contact us and set up a lunch.

a dinner, and he would keep us up to
speed on what's going on with city

He was here in Africa, or he was in this
part of the world doing this.

So it kind of reinforced our trust in
him.

Until one day, the payment stopped.

We tried to call to find out what was
going on. We could not get in touch with

our account managers. We could not get
in touch with Ephraim.

And that's when we realized things were
going south.

According to Lakewood Church, guest
speakers are not allowed to sell their

services to members.

Taylor was invited to speak about
biblical financial principles.

When he started promoting his financial
services, they say he was quickly shut

down.

Next on American Greed, Taylor is
desperate for cash.

Ephraim did not have the money to pay
the returns or the original amount back

the investor.

And rolls the dice on sweepstakes
machines?

That's the first question most church
folks say. You know, we don't want to be

gambling.

We were sure, even in writing, it wasn't
gambling.

In 2009, Ephraim Taylor's Building
Wealth Tour is crisscrossing the

adding one church after another to his
brochure, convincing the faithful to

socially conscious investments with city
capital.

Taylor has handed out numerous
promissory notes while on tour that

investors a 12 to 20 percent return on
their investment.

The promissory notes were due typically
after a year.

He claimed that he would use the money
from those promissory notes to invest in

small businesses around the country.

It turns out he was taking in that money
and not investing in those businesses

that he was promising.

Ephraim Taylor used investors' money for
his media appearances, book tours, etc.

Funds were used for commissions to
Taylor, also to other employees.

Ephraim did not have the money to pay
the returns or the original amount back

the investor.

There was also a squeaky wheel policy
where...

If the investor were to complain loud
enough and often enough that they were

given some type of return or funds in
order to pacify them to keep the scheme

going.

Quickly running out of other people's
money, Taylor and City Capital need a

revenue stream.

And they start promoting video poker
-like sweepstakes machines.

Taylor creates this video to entice
investors.

Hey, I'm glad that you made it here, and
I'm glad that you made the decision to

take the time to read more about the
sweepstakes income generation

Sweepstakes machines look, sound, and
feel like slot machines, but in reality,

they're computers loaded with casino
games.

She initially had some heartache about
it because sweepstakes machines aren't

generally considered a Christian or
socially conscious investment.

So Ephraim's marketing brochure had to
be convincing.

Sweepstakes machines are a gray area.

That's why Ephraim stressed that the
sweepstakes machines were not gambling.

But he never told investors about the
risks of illegality, nor did he tell

that law enforcement had actually raided
parlors.

The machines were his last -ditch effort
to generate new investor money to pay

back his earlier investors.

Desperate for money?

Taylor and his CityCapital team made
outlandish propositions to potential

sweepstakes machine investors.

The offer? For a mere $5 ,000, the
investor purchases a sweepstakes machine

CityCapital will maintain and place in a
high -traffic area, yielding the

investor an unheard -of return on their
initial investment.

So with these machines, he would often
tell people that they would gain at a

minimum 300%.

on their investment.

Often he would tell people they would
get 2 ,400 % on their investment.

It was all a lie. None of that was true.

If a 2 ,400 % return on investment
didn't convince investors to sign on the

dotted line, making that offer risk
-free certainly would.

And Taylor uses YouTube videos to lure
investors.

That's right. I've taken all the risk
off the table by guaranteeing that

make your investment back or we'll buy
the machine back.

So what do you have to lose?

In October 2009, Taylor's building
wealth tour heads south to New Birth

Missionary Baptist Church near Atlanta.

In addition to pushing his regular
investments, Taylor presents his latest

offering, risk -free sweepstakes
machines.

J .B. Bailey and several church members
are initially cautious.

That's the first question the church
folks say is, you know, we don't want to

gambling.

And we were sure, even in writing, it
wasn't gambling.

Ephraim Taylor and City Capital offered
J .B. Bailey a bargain.

He gave me a discount.

I had four machines that could have been
$20 ,000, but he sold them to me for

close to $14 ,000.

Also in the church that day is Lillian
Wells, an active parishioner at New

for more than 20 years.

The wealth building tour was supposed to
be able to show us how we can enjoy our

life in our older age and also be able
to leave a legacy for our children.

At the seminar, Taylor follows his now
familiar script.

He makes numerous biblical references,
talks about socially conscious

and says traditional IRAs could be
investing their money in ungodly

Taylor and City Capital employees
convince Wells that a self -directed IRA

give her the freedom she desires.

You're trying to live in a godly way, so
the only way you can control where your

money is being invested is through the
self -directing IRA.

Lillian is given the opportunity to
invest in apartment buildings in

At first, she is hesitant.

I wanted to do my own investments here
in the Georgia area.

Well, then they offered me 20 % return
on the investment if I would let

him, you know, invest it their way.

Wells is offered a promissory note that
will provide a 20 % return on investment

in just nine months.

It isn't long before she moves her
entire life savings into a self

IRA. The only way you can leave a legacy
or leave something for your children is

that you've got to gain wealth now.

I invested $122 ,000.

When American Greed returns.

The feds come knocking.

The SEC tried to reach out to Ethan
Taylor. We sent him subpoenas at

addresses. And Taylor goes on the lam.

He had disappeared, and attorneys around
the country were looking for him

without success.

In 2010, despite not having enough money
to cover payroll and business expenses,

Ephraim Taylor is brazenly spending the
life savings of his investors for his

own benefit.

Ephraim spent millions of dollars paying
off his personal credit card, rent at

his New York City, Toronto apartment,
studio time for his wife's music career,

and the production of her music video,
Billionaire.

In the music video, Taylor's wife,
Michelle, pays homage to an extravagant

lifestyle, and they post on YouTube for
all to see.

The lyrics to the song are all about
wealth and being a billionaire, and you

aren't. It was very good.

But someone who is there is her

husband, Ethan Taylor.

The billionaire is not my taste in
music.

But he had a nice cameo.

It was the biggest slap in the face to
these investors when they found out

that's what their money had been used
for.

While the Taylors are off pretending to
be billionaires, investors are wondering

where their money is.

When the Dorios' monthly payments stop,
they try contacting city capital

numerous times, but get the runaround.

That definitely gave me a great deal of
concern.

And I knew I needed to start finding out
what is the truth and what's going on.

We could not get in touch with our
account managers. We could not get in

with Ephraim.

That's when we realized things were
going south.

Lillian Wells is also looking to cash
out.

At the end of this nine months, I was
ready to invest my money in Georgia.

And I called them to get...

My return and my original investment.

And J .B. Bailey knew something wasn't
quite right when he stopped receiving

checks from City Capital.

These checks I got over a period of
maybe four to six months.

They went from $240 to maybe $150, maybe
to $100 to nothing.

And then at that point, that's when I
know it was.

We've been hoodwinked and bamboozled.

City Capital was running out of money to
pay its earlier investors, and they

started asking for their returns, and
there simply wasn't money to pay them.

Taylor's hustle is running out of steam.

You run out of money to pay the
investors who want their returns, and so

need new investors to pay it, and
ultimately it collapses under its own

because you run out of money.

By the fall of 2010, Taylor's pristine
image is starting to tarnish.

The Dorios filed a lawsuit, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission

investigating. We looked at City
Capital's website and learned that it

earth -shattering returns far greater
than any bank could return.

Those were red flags.

Panicked investors call City Capital for
answers, and frustrated employees quit.

Lillian Wells is one of those investors.

Numerous attempts to contact city
capital to retrieve her life savings go

unanswered. I was still hopeful and
still trying to get in touch with them

getting my money back.

By October, city capital is out of money
and can no longer keep the lid on the

pressure cooker.

Taylor abruptly steps down as CEO and
slithers into hiding.

The SEC tried to reach out to Ethan
Taylor.

We sent him subpoenas at multiple
addresses.

We never heard from Ethan Taylor.

He had disappeared.

Attorneys around the country were
looking for him without success.

Lillian Wells and 12 other victims of
Taylor at Newberth looked to Bishop

Long for a solution.

I think he was surprised at the amount
that all of us had invested, and it was

over a million -some dollars.

We were looking for help on how to get
Ephraim to give us our money back.

Bishop Eddie Long died in 2017.

Requests by American Greed to speak with
New Birth Missionary Baptist Church

have gone unanswered. By April 2011, the
Dorios reach a $1 .2 million settlement

with city capital, which does not admit
any wrongdoing. But it's too late.

It's fine if they say you won.

If there's no way to go after the person
or get anything, it's pretty empty.

And that's basically what happened to
us.

When American Greed returns,

Ephraim Taylor is forced out of hiding.
A TV crew tracked him down.

And Michelle is spotted working at a
massage parlor.

By September 2012, multiple government
agencies are investigating Ephraim

II.

Attorneys filed multiple lawsuits
against Taylor and city capital.

No one knew where he had gone. He had
disappeared.

Attorneys around the country were
looking for him, but without success.

The Securities and Exchange Commission
files civil charges against Taylor,

claiming he operated a Ponzi scheme to
swindle over $11 million, primarily from

African -American churchgoers.

The SEC states that they are unaware of
his whereabouts, and many subpoenas have

gone unanswered.

The Taylors, it seems, have gone
underground.

In August 2013,

Ephraim and Michelle Taylor are spotted
by a network news crew in Lenexa,

Kansas.

One day drawn to the media spotlight,
Taylor is now hiding from it. And he and

his wife drive away, eluding questions
from the press.

Ephraim Taylor, the big talker, the
preacher's son who could charm anyone,

suddenly was silent when confronted by
questions from the media.

A short time later, the news crew has
another encounter with Michelle Taylor

when she arrives at the day spa under
the alias of Liz Taylor.

A TV crew tracked it down and put a
microphone into Michelle's face, asking

her about the money. She seemed like a
caged animal.

In the end, many of Taylor's victims
lose their entire life savings.

People are emotionally devastated.

Some people lost everything they had. So
after a long career and having done the

right thing and thinking they were going
to have an opportunity to rest, they

had to return to work because they
didn't have any money to live off of.

Like many of Taylor's victims, Lillian
Wells files for bankruptcy.

The money that I was trying to build
wealth on to leave for my grandkids and

everything was all gone. So now I had to
work to just survive.

But the damage runs much deeper.

I lost the church family that I had due
to

the involvement of it. I loved New
Birth, still do.

I miss being with people that I had been
with for more than 20 -something years.

Lillian and several New Birth members,
including J .B. Bailey, recoup an

undisclosed amount in a civil suit
against Bishop Long.

Despite his claims, he did nothing
wrong.

Because of the lawsuit, some of the
people that were friends to you, they

at things in a different way than you
may look at it.

It's changed the way J .B. Bailey
practices his faith.

I no longer go to New Birth.

I didn't give up on God, but I gave up
on...

man's system of how they have church and
the tradition of what we say church is.

The singing, the hoopla, and all the
celebrities.

You know, when it all boils down to, is
your inner soul really being fed?

Are you really happy?

And oddly, you know, even though Larry
and I live like we do, I can say I'm

happy.

Taylor's biggest investors, Gary and
Anita Dorio, face the unthinkable.

We lost the home to foreclosure. And
when we went to court, the judge gave us

six days to vacate.

But the financial loss only scratches
the surface of their suffering.

The first and foremost goal of the trust
was to take care of my wife's mom in

her retirement.

She developed a form of Parkinson's.

that required 24 -7 care, she needed to
be full -time nursing home. And we could

not afford to do that, so we were taking
care of her 24 -7 at home.

The human cost is immeasurable.

Now, we had nothing to fall back on. We
were starting from zero in our late 40s

and had to rebuild and still are
rebuilding everything.

So many people were just devastated by
this.

Families destroyed, dreams destroyed.

Despite changing their lives forever,
the Dorios still find mercy in their

hearts for Taylor.

I forgive you, Ephraim. I prayed for you
and your family because I know they'll

never be the same.

Although the Dorios no longer attend
Lakewood Church, the experience hasn't

shaken their faith.

Ephraim Taylor did come to this event at
Lakewood Church. I do not hold Lakewood

responsible.

My faith has grown, and definitely it
made Gary and I, our marriage, stronger

because we went through a huge thing
together. You can either let something

horrific bring you closer together or
tear you apart. It brought us closer

together.

In June 2014, Ephraim Taylor surrenders
to authorities.

He pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit
mail and wire fraud.

The computer whiz kid with a promising
future ends up bilking more than 400

people in 43 states out of $16 million.

Taylor declined interview requests by
American Greed.

Was he a good guy in the beginning and
turned bad guy, or was he just a wolf in

sheep's clothing?

Ephraim wanted to live a certain
lifestyle.

To do so, he had to rip off people.

Ephraim convinced investors to give him
their entire retirement nest egg.

All of that money is gone.

Ephraim Taylor is sentenced to almost 20
years in prison.

and is ordered to pay restitution in the
amount of more than $15 million.

His wife, Michelle Taylor, was never
implicated or charged in any crime.

In the end, this prophet of prosperity
turned out to be a false prophet. As the

Bible warns, beware of false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing, but

inwardly are ravenous wolves.

I can't think of a single business that
Ephraim participated in that was

successful. The victims will never see a
dime from Ephraim Taylor.

Do your homework, and you need to be
aware.

Do due diligence. No matter how much
someone else has said they've done it,

make sure you check it out first.

I believe all churches should have a
tenet that says we do not allow.

any type of investment advisors or
sponsors to speak in our pulpit or to

presentations to our flock.

If we had that, this religious affinity
fraud would stop.

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