A father and son who belong to a secretive evangelical church in North Carolina are facing criminal charges in an unemployment benefits scheme that former congregants have said was part of a plan to keep money flowing into the church.
As part of an ongoing investigation into physical and emotional abuse at the Word of Faith Fellowship Church in Spindale, North Carolina, the Associated Press reported in September that authorities were looking into the unemployment dealings of congregants and their businesses.
Dr. Jerry Gross, 72, and his son, Jason Lee Gross, 51, were charged Friday with wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Asheville. They were both charged in a criminal bill of information, which generally means defendants have agreed to waive indictment and plead guilty. They will appear in court May 25.
Jerry Gross owned the Foot & Ankle Center of the Carolinas in Forest City, North Carolina. His son worked there, according to court records.
The U.S attorney's office said the scheme, from September 2009 to March 2013, netted nearly $150,000. The two made it appear that they had laid off employees, making them eligible for unemployment benefits, but prosecutors said the workers remained on the job.
AP cited 11 former congregants in September who said dozens of church members filed bogus claims at various times at the direction of church leaders.
Telephone and emails messages left for Jerry Gross' attorney, Walter C. Holton Jr., and Jason Gross's attorney, David Freedman, were not immediately returned Friday.
"This is a huge first step," former congregant Ben Cooper, an attorney, said. "We hope there's more to come. They've hurt a lot of people."
Former congregant Randy Fields had told the AP his construction company faced potential ruin around 2008 because of the cratering economy, so he pleaded with church leaders to reduce the amount of money he was required to tithe every week.
To his shock, Fields said church founder Jane Whaley proposed a plan that would allow him to continue contributing at least 10 percent of his income to the Word of Faith Fellowship while helping his company survive: He would file fraudulent unemployment claims on behalf of his employees. She called it, he said, "God's plan."
The unemployment allegations were uncovered as part of the AP's ongoing investigation into Word of Faith, which has about 750 congregants in rural North Carolina and a total of nearly 2,000 members in its branches in Brazil and Ghana and its affiliations in Sweden, Scotland and other countries.
In February 2017, the AP cited more than three dozen former Word of Faith Fellowship members who said congregants were regularly punched and choked in an effort to beat out devils.