Socal Pasteur would have deserved friends, non -profit on more than $ 230,000

A Pastor of San Bernardino and a candidate for the municipal council of the Onierie was arrested this suspected week that he had defrauded longtime friends and a non -profit company linked to another church of more than $ 230,000, according to the federal authorities.

Terrance Owens Elliott, who was arrested on Thursday, was accused of 11 wire fraud chiefs, according to the American prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles. The 60 -year -old Crestline resident pleaded not guilty and is free from a deposit of $ 9,000.

The federal public defender of Elliott did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Saturday.

According to the indictment, from October 2019 to February 2023, Elliott – representing himself as working in the government of the city of San Bernardino and being involved in the police service – has frauded several longtime friends.

Elliott would have convinced a friend, identified only by his initials, MC, to place money in a trust he would establish and administer. He said that she would lose her health insurance and social security services if she directly received her inheritance, according to the indictment.

The trust, for which Elliott was co-third, provided that money was used for MC’s financial needs during his life and for his funeral expenses, according to the indictment. Any remaining property would pass to the three children of MC when he died.

When Elliott opened a bank account on behalf of the trust, he would have registered himself as a trustee himself and gave the bank a fraudulently modified copy of the trust agreement which listed it as having a single power to make the payments of the account, according to the indictment.

Elliott would have written checks and made online transfers to a church – identified only as “church A” – which were not authorized under the trust agreement. According to the indictment, he also used money in trust to buy postal mandates to pay the rent of the church.

Part of the money would also have gone to Elliott’s personal expenses, including the repair of a Chevrolet truck, Nike sneakers, a piano, clothing and a prolonged warranty for a motorcycle.

Elliott would also have had access to the MC account in another bank and would have transferred around $ 27,164 from some of its monthly social security payments to the church, according to the federal authorities.

When MC’s family interviewed Elliott on the trust account or for bank statements, he “rocked in accordance by getting angry and telling them that everything was under control”, according to the indictment.

After the death of MC, Elliott would have cheated on another person – identified as WH – by paying $ 8,600 for funeral costs, wrongly affirming that he needed the authorization of a judge before the money in the trust account could be released.

Elliott would have fraud four victims, including MC and WH, on just over $ 150,200, according to the American prosecutor’s office.

Another alleged program started in June 2021, after the authorities said that Elliott advised to sell a house. After the sale of the house, Elliott suggested that WH’s Corporation gives $ 65,000 from the MC trust, wrongly affirming that this would avoid tax on the capital’s capital gains, according to the indictment.

The accusation act alleys that Elliott has prepared a loan contract between the company and the trust and told Wh that he would transfer $ 65,000 from the company to the trust account and that the trust would reimburse it with 10% of annual interest. He would also have convinced WH to give him several white checks signed by the company’s bank account.

Elliott would have used one of the white checks to make an unauthorized transfer of $ 16,000 to church A, according to the indictment. Elliott would have transferred $ 49,000 to the trust, but would never have reimbursed part of the loan of $ 65,000.

In another alleged regime, which, according to the authorities, took place from September 2018 to June 2021, Elliott used its relations with a church, identified only as the B church, and its board of directors to help manage dispute and other costs involving and an entity identified only as a non -profit company A.

According to the indictment, Elliott lied to the board of directors of the non -profit organization and the B church that the non -profit organization owed money to the WH company for services related to a trial against them. Consequently, the non -profit organization issued approximately 32 checks to the company, which Elliott would have later deposited in a bank account which he controlled.

Elliott would have defrauded the non -profit organization on approximately $ 23,300.

In total, the authorities claim that Elliott’s regimes cost the victims about $ 238,563.

The San Bernardino Sun reported that Elliott had run for a seat of the municipal council in 2022 – an offer not only unsuccessful, but highlighted criminal convictions and civil proceedings against him.

If it is convicted, Elliott could incur up to 20 years in federal prison for each charge.