OAKLAND — A former African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop pleaded guilty Tuesday to wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud for transferring church property deeds to an entity he created then using them to obtain loans, prosecutors said.
Staccato Powell, a 65-year-old resident of Wake Forest, North Carolina, agreed to pay restitution between $3 million and $12.5 million and to forfeit his claim to any church properties as part of his plea, according to the Department of Justice Northern District of California. The properties he falsely obtained loans on included the First AME Zion Church in San Jose, the Greater Cooper AME Zion Church in Oakland and the University AME Zion Church of Palo Alto.
Powell was indicted for the scheme in 2022 alongside co-defendant Sheila Quintana, who pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud earlier this year.
In 2016, Powell formed an entity called Western Episcopal District, Inc., of which he served as the chief executive officer and Quintana served as the chief financial officer from 2017 to 2019, prosecutors said. He formed this entity shortly after being appointed as bishop of the church’s Western Episcopal District, which encompasses several western states.
Powell then instructed pastors to transfer the title of their church properties, including the church buildings, outbuildings, parking lots and residences, to Western Episcopal District by signing deeds, prosecutors said.
Beginning in 2017, Powell asked Quintana to use the transferred properties as collateral to get loans, prosecutors said. He prompted the creation of documents posing as resolutions from congregations in support of the loan applications to provide confirmation to the lenders. He also instructed Quintana to falsify documents and sign them with the names of church officers, prosecutors added.
Some of the loan funds were used by Powell to personal benefit, including paying off a mortgage he owed on a property in North Carolina and purchasing a property for his children, prosecutors said.
Powell caused Western Episcopal District to file for bankruptcy in July 2020, prosecutors said. In the application, the organization claimed to own 11 churches, a parsonage and Powell’s residence as assets. The application claimed property value of $26 million and said its debts totaled more than $12 million.
With his guilty plea, Powell admitted to obtaining loans on five church properties across California, prosecutors said.
In 2017, Powell used the First AME Zion Church in San Jose as collateral for a loan of $750,000 to purchase a parsonage, instructing Quintana in executing the property agreement and creating a resolution from the church’s trustee board to approve the transaction, prosecutors said. He also instructed Quintana to fabricate a resolution on the church’s letterhead stating that the church held a membership meeting to vote on deeding its properties to the Western Episcopal District and that a unanimous vote approved the transaction.
Prosecutors added that the church trustee board met twice and voted against the deed transfer on both occasions, which Powell knew. When Powell later learned that another church in Los Angeles also had a title interest in the San Jose church, he asked Quintana to create a false resolution that the church’s trustees held a vote to deed the San Jose church to Western Episcopal District.
In 2019, Powell instructed Western Episcopal District officers to take out an additional $3 million of debt on the San Jose church, prosecutors added.
Powell also used the Greater Cooper AME Zion Church in Oakland as collateral for a $1.1 million loan in 2018 and a $500,000 loan in 2019 without their authorization, prosecutors said.
In 2017, Powell told the pastor of the University AME Zion Church of Palo Alto that he was going to use the church as collateral to secure a $200,000 loan to help another church in Sacramento, prosecutors said. After getting the pastor’s signature to transfer the deed to the Western Episcopal District, he instead used the church to secure a loan of $2 million. In total, he prompted $3.9 million of loans on the Palo Alto church.
Powell took out loans through similar means on Kyles Temple in Vallejo and First AME Zion Church in Los Angeles, prosecutors said. He also admitted that he directed the Western Episcopal District to take out a $2.15 million loan in September 2019 to pay off other loans, followed by a $3 million loan in December 2019 to pay off the September loan. Both of these loans used several churches in California and Arizona as collateral.
Powell is out of custody and will next appear in court Sept. 23, prosecutors said. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $250,000 for each count.
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