Original subtitles

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.