{"id":7277,"date":"2014-11-11T11:52:32","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T19:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=7277"},"modified":"2014-11-12T19:01:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T03:01:23","slug":"pastor-ran-7-million-ponzi-scheme-sentenced-10-years-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=7277","title":{"rendered":"A Pastor Who Ran a $7 Million Ponzi Scheme Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7278\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7278\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Luis-Serna.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7278 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Luis-Serna-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Luis Serna\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7278\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Luis Serna (Photo: Univision.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>LOS ANGELES \u2013<\/strong> A Chatsworth man was sentenced on Monday to 10 years \u00a0in federal prison for running an investment scheme that lured more than 82 victims into investing about $7 million, the U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Luis Alonso Serna<\/strong>, 61, a pastor at Zion Living Word Christian Center &#8211; formerly Amistad Cristiana &#8211; \u00a0in San Fernando operated a foreign currency investment company called Architects of the Future Investments. The scheme targeted Spanish-Speaking Investors, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Serna plead guilty in August to a wire fraud charge.<\/p>\n<p>During the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge\u00a0Beverly Reid O\u2019Connell ordered Serna to pay $4.6 million as restitution to victims, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case involves an egregious fraud that targeted the non-wealthy victims who believed in the defendant because he was a pastor,\u201d prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court. \u201cThe effects of this crime on the victims are truly devastating in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn short, [Serna] has caused not only financial loss, but the loss of homes, the loss of ability to pay for education for children, the need to declare bankruptcy, psychological damage, physical affliction, and endless suffering,\u201d according to the sentencing memo, which contained numerous statements from victims who suffered adverse effects when they lost their money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The court evidence indicated that Serna solicited loans from individuals by telling them that the money would be invested in foreign currency and that their investments would generate annual returns as high as 20 percent, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said Serna admitted in his plea agreement that he invested only a small portion of the loan proceeds in foreign currency or anything else that could possibly sustain the returns he promised his victims.<\/p>\n<p>Serna was running a Ponzi scheme in which he used money from new investors to pay off \u00a0people who had previously given him money.<\/p>\n<p>This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2013 A Chatsworth man was sentenced on Monday to 10 years \u00a0in federal prison for running an investment scheme that lured more than 82 victims into investing about $7 million,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[77,986],"class_list":["post-7277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-ponzi-scheme","tag-zion-living-word-christian-center"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Pastor Who Ran a $7 Million Ponzi Scheme Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES \u2013 A Chatsworth man was sentenced on Monday to 10 years \u00a0in federal prison for running an investment scheme that lured more than 82 victims\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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