A five-month investigation uncovered evidence that church-starting funds from The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) were misused between 1999 and 2005 in the Rio Grande Valley, according to information presented during a called meeting of the BGCT executive board Oct. 31 in Dallas.
Independent investigators discovered about 98 percent of the 258 church starts reported by three pastors in the Valley no longer exist — and some never existed, except on paper. The BGCT gave more than $1.3 million in startup funding and monthly financial support to those 258 churches.
The pastors named were Otto Arango, Aaron de la Torre and Armando Vera. They could not be reached immediately for comment.
The investigation uncovered poor oversight, uneven management, failure to abide by internal guidelines and misplaced trust by some BGCT church-starting staff leaders in Dallas.
Investigators noted BGCT leaders failed to investigate thoroughly charges of impropriety, even though some staffers knew about irregularities in the church-starting program in the Valley.
Even an FBI investigation in 2000–2001 regarding allegations of fraud failed to prompt a serious internal investigation, the report noted. However, investigators found no evidence that BGCT personnel profited from the scam or were guilty of collusion.
The former director and associate director of the BGCT Church Starting Center left the BGCT staff Oct. 25, one day after the findings of the investigation were revealed to executive board leaders. According to memos circulated to the BGCT staff, Abe Zabaneh, former director and now a church starter, resigned and David Guel, former associate director and now a BGCT consultant, retired.
Officers of the BGCT and its executive board had enlisted Brownsville, Texas, attorney Diane Dillard to conduct an independent investigation of alleged mishandling of church-starting funds in the Valley. Dillard and her colleague, Michael Rodriguez, presented their findings during the Oct. 31 meeting.
Key findings included:
- Some church starts in the Valley were fictitious “phantom churches” that existed only on paper.
- While some house churches in the Valley developed into autonomous congregations, a large number of the home-based groups did not qualify as “churches” under the BGCT Church Starting Center’s guidelines.
- De la Torre and Arango misused church startup funds to fund book printing and other ministry work. Vera deposited church-starting funds into a general missions fund, which is against BGCT guidelines. Investigators did not find “substantiated proof” that funds were used for personal gain.
- New church development guidelines were not followed in some instances, and then-missions director E.B. Brooks allegedly relaxed guidelines for certain pastors, according to Guel.
- BGCT staff members, including Guel, knew some BGCT startup funds were provided to house churches that did not qualify as churches; Vera commingled BGCT startup funds in the general account of a sponsoring church; leftover BGCT startup funds usually were not returned after a new church disbanded; and BGCT startup funds for specific churches sometimes were used for other church starts, missions work of a sponsoring church or the sponsoring church itself.
- Investigators found some BGCT church startup money was used for missions in Latin America; De la Torre and Arango allegedly split some new church startup gifts 50–50; and some BGCT church startup checks were deposited into a personal account; but there is no evidence any BGCT employee knew some church starts were “phantom churches” that only existed on paper.
- Investigators found “no evidence that anyone at the BGCT received money for personal gain” in connection with the church startup program in the Valley.
Investigators pointed to evidence some BGCT staff knew about examples of irregularities in the church-starting program in the Valley, but they found no evidence the convention staff conducted a thorough investigation into allegations.
“The BGCT should have recognized at least some of the red flags,” Dillard said. “However, no evidence of a thorough investigation of these matters was provided to the investigators. The lack of written investigation reports, summaries or memoranda in the BGCT files suggests that the allegations were not seen as credible.
“When asked, the BGCT witnesses had no logical explanation why there was not a thorough BGCT investigation into the allegations,” she added.
Investigators noted the BGCT reported 357 new churches in the Valley with 157 active (44 percent). Of the new churches in the Valley started by the top four sponsoring congregations, the BGCT reported 258 with 100 active (39 percent). However, their interviews presented a different picture. Of the 357 total, only 62 were active (17 percent), and of the churches started by the top four sponsors, only five were active (2 percent). (ABP)
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