The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Marvin Upton, pastor of Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton, Kentucky, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on three counts of bank fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns
The West Kentucky Star reports:
A former Christian County pastor was sentenced last week at U.S. District Court in Paducah to more than two years in federal prison for fraud and tax offenses, the U. S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Kentucky announced on Thursday.
According to court documents, Marvin Upton, 58, received two years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on three counts of bank fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. Until recently, Upton was the pastor at Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton, Kentucky.
Prosecutors say the bank fraud charges arose from Upton’s scheme during the years 2013 to 2016 to defraud one of his elderly congregation members who suffered from dementia. During that same time frame, Upton also submitted multiple false tax returns which omitted the income he received from the fraud scheme.
Upton was also ordered by the Court to pay restitution in the amount of $500,000 to the victim’s estate and another $222,037 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). There is no parole in the federal court system.
The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation office, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Madison T. Sewell and Corinne E. Keel prosecuted the case.
This matter was investigated and prosecuted as part of the National Elder Justice Task Force and the Kentucky Elder Justice Task Force. The Department of Justice’s mission of its Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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