Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Alexandria, VA, USA · 2019

Terry Millender: eight-year sentence for selling a fraudulent investment as a Christian mission

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

senior pastor of Victorious Life Church, religious leader soliciting congregants and clergy as investors

Organization

Victorious Life Church in Alexandria, Micro-Enterprise Management Group, Kingdom Commodities Unlimited

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The official federal disposition states that Millender targeted congregants, clergy and other investors, emphasized a Christian mission of helping poor people, and preyed on victims' religious beliefs and charitable desires. He coupled pastoral trust and religious-purpose claims with guaranteed-return and principal-safety promises, then diverted funds to trading and personal expenses.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Prosperity, divination, or curse-removal claim
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2019-02-26 · jury trial and sentence, Case No. 1:16-cr-239

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Following trial convictions for investment and tax fraud, the court sentenced Millender to eight years in federal prison and ordered more than $2 million in restitution.

Documented coercion mechanisms

Christian charitable mission used as an investment claim
pastoral trust
guaranteed-return claims
false assurances that principal was protected
congregational and clergy recruitment

Cited record

Sources

official prosecutor release criminal disposition and nexus U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, 'Pastor Sentenced to Prison for Investment Fraud Scheme' (Feb. 26, 2019).: The official sentencing release records the trial judgment, eight-year sentence, restitution, victim groups, Christian-mission representation, investment misrepresentations, diversions and prosecutor's finding that Millender preyed on religious beliefs and charitable desires.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/pastor-sentenced-prison-investment-fraud-scheme Corpus classification: official-prosecutor-release; evidentiary role: criminal-disposition-and-nexus. SHA-256 6e531c21c05d6c7c5297120e2b409e08088c9befc642b306892cc1adc2f22469
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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