Conviction New religious movements Miami, FL, USA · 1992

Yahweh ben Yahweh: 18-year sentence for a RICO conspiracy involving murder and arson

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

founder and religious leader, self-proclaimed son of God

Organization

Nation of Yahweh

Spiritual nexus

The cited record identifies violent apocalyptic and racial doctrine, kill-or-die pledges, family separation, temple isolation, public humiliation and beatings, and leader-directed violence as the material spiritual doctrine, practice, authority, or pretext connected to the documented harm. The relevant authority role is founder and religious leader and self-proclaimed son of God.

Religious marriage or family control
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

1992-09-04 · jury verdict and sentence

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida. After a five-month trial, a jury convicted Yahweh ben Yahweh and six appellants of RICO conspiracy. The court sentenced Yahweh to eighteen years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Appellate history

1996-01-05 · undefined

The court affirmed all seven appellants' RICO-conspiracy convictions in every respect.

Documented coercion mechanisms

violent apocalyptic and racial doctrine
kill-or-die pledges
family separation
temple isolation
public humiliation and beatings
leader-directed violence

Primary record

Sources

appellate court published appellate opinion United States v. Beasley, 72 F.3d 1518 (11th Cir. 1996).: The published appellate opinion records the RICO-conspiracy verdicts and sentences, Yahweh ben Yahweh's religious leadership and claimed divinity, the coercive temple structure, teachings used to justify violence and the distinction between convicted conspirators and members who were not implicated.
contemporaneous reporting sentencing report Washington Post, 'Religious Sect Leader Sentenced to 18 Years' (Sept. 5, 1992).: Contemporaneous reporting records the September 4 sentence, eighteen-year term and $20,000 fine after the federal conspiracy conviction.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on New religious movements, not specific to this one case.

ABC News (2005) ''Prince' of Former Cult Commits Murder-Suicide', ABC News, January. Available at: abcnews.go.com (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The documented aftermath of the Children of God's abuse system: Ricky Rodriguez, raised as the movement's 'prince' and heir, 'stabbed his former nanny to death before committing suicide' in January 2005, after videotaping a statement about his childhood: 'How can you do that to kids and sleep at night?' Note: Rodriguez died the same day and was never prosecuted; this entry documents an outcome of the abuse system established in the Ward judgment above, not an adjudication — and his characterizations of individuals are his own claims, not court findings.
Wikipedia (2026) 'Richard Bandler' [summarizing the 1988 Santa Cruz murder trial and acquittal]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Richard Bandler, co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, was acquitted — that verdict leads this entry, which documents a trial, not a guilt. 'In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen... a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.' The trial — and the contemporaneous reporting around it — remains the most extensively documented court event in the history of the human-potential movement's founder generation, and a window into the coercive-influence milieu from which NLP marketing later grew. Bandler was and remains legally innocent of the killing.

Related record

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