Wolves Among the Sheep > Senior Pastor - a liar and a thief, sent to prison in Maryland

 

Pastor who obtained $3.5M in COVID relief funds, bought Tesla sentenced to prison

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, September 01, 2024

Rudolph Brooks, a 48-year-old pastor from Cheltenham, Maryland, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining over $3.5 million in COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans and using part of these funds to purchase a Tesla.

The sentencing also includes two years of supervised release and mandates the forfeiture of significant assets, including properties in Maryland.

And the Tesla?

Investigations revealed that from April 2020 to September 2021, Brooks, founder and senior pastor of the Kingdom Tabernacle of Restoration Ministries in Washington, D.C., exploited the PPP by submitting falsified documents to obtain loans for businesses under his control, including a car dealership and a ministry, Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, said in a statement.

Brooks’ fraudulent activities centered around his businesses, Cars Direct by Gavawn HWD Bob’s Motors, Kingdom Tabernacle of Restoration Ministries, and Madaro, LLC. He inflated employee numbers and payroll expenses on PPP loan applications, securing millions, which he then misused for personal expenses.

Satan is the father of lies, and liars, IMHO.

Notable purchases included a 2018 Tesla Model 3, a property in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and lavish spending on groceries, retail items and restaurant meals.

The CARES Act, under which Brooks committed the fraud, was enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans impacted by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

Brooks pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering, as per court records from the sentencing Tuesday. As a result, he was ordered by Judge Deborah L. Boardman to forfeit over $2 million, the Tesla vehicle and the real estate purchased with the fraudulently obtained funds.

The case against Brooks involved several federal agencies, including the FBI and the IRS.

Brooks was prosecuted by the District of Maryland Strike Force, one of three nationwide initiatives aimed at combatting pandemic-related fraud.

In an interview with The Impact’s Robin Dorsey on WBGR in 2018, Brooks said he knew he was called by God when he was about 4 or 5 years old. He further noted that he was raised in the church and his father was a minister.

His church’s website describes him as “a man after God’s own heart and has a passion for God’s people.”

“Pastor Brooks desires to see believers grow spiritually and desires to see the church function according to the word of the Lord. His intense love for the Lord, relentless spirit and ability to tap into the very heart of God make him a memorable speaker. With his love for God and lively preaching style, which can hold even the skeptics’ attention, Pastor Brooks speaks and shares the heart of God with compassion and conviction,” the church notes.

Did Brooks write this himself? Liars and thieves have no place in the pulpit of a real Christian church. Where was the gift of discernment in this church? Was no-one listening to God?

FBI Translator Whose Son is in Prison for Supporting ISIS is Arrested

Abdirizak Wehelie was arrested 'for altering transcripts of calls he made

to terrorism suspect'

By LAUREN FRUEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS

A former FBI linguistics expert has been arrested accused of obstructing a federal investigation after a terror suspect allegedly left a voicemail on his cell phone, it has been revealed. 

Federal authorities charged the former translator with making false statements after they say he altered transcripts of calls in which his own voice was caught on intercepts.

Abdirizak Wehelie, aka Haji Raghe, was arrested Saturday night at an airport after returning to the U.S. on an international fight, according to Josh Stueve, a spokesman for the US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

The 66-year-old, who lives with his family in St. Burk, Virginia, is a former contract translator for the federal agency.   

His son, Yusuf Wehelie, is already serving 10 years in prison for transporting weapons in a case where he is said to have spoken with an undercover witness about his desire to shoot up a military recruitment center on behalf of the Islamic State group.

FOX5 reported in 2016 Yusuf also told undercover agents he wanted to travel to Libya to join ISIS. 

He and another son, Yahya, were also barred from returning to the U.S. in 2010 on an overseas trip until they successfully overturned their status on the no-fly list.    

Both brothers were said to have been detained in Cairo after returning from Yemen.    

An indictment unsealed Monday states that Wehelie worked as a contractor for the FBI from 2012 to 2015. 

In December 2012, a man targeted by the FBI in an investigation connected to the Al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia called and left a voicemail message for Wehelie, court documents say. 

The call was intercepted under court-ordered surveillance, and Wehelie was tasked the next day with translating the call, according to authorities. 

But he allegedly marked himself down as 'unidentified male' even though the voicemail message on Wehelie's cellphone identified him as 'Abdirizak Wehelie.' 

Abdirizak Wehelie, left, has been arrested accused of obstructing a terrorism investigation after the suspect

allegedly left a voicemail on his personal phone. He is pictured with wife Shamsa Noor and son Yusuf Wehelie

in 2010 after Yahya Wehelie was detained in Cairo

Abdirizak Wehelie was arrested Saturday. A judge ordered Wehelie to be freed on bail following his initial appearance on Monday in a federal court in Alexandria

The FBI questioned Wehelie about his actions in 2016. At the time, according to the indictment, Wehelie admitted that he should not have identified himself as an 'unidentified male' on that translation. 

He also reportedly told FBI agents that he had never actually had a phone conversation with the person who called him and that he didn't know the person very well. 

But a subsequent FBI investigation is said to have revealed that the two had nearly 180 phone contacts from 2010 to 2017. 

The FBI employed Wehelie as a contractor even though his adult children had been placed on the no-fly list and denied re-entry to the U.S. for several weeks in 2010. 

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Prosecutors did not object to his release on $20,000 unsecured bail.

Madrid Leader Resigns After 2011 Shoplifting Video Surfaces

Corruption is Everywhere - A Liar and Thief in Spain

By Susan McFarland 

Cristina Cifuentes, the head of Spain's Madrid region, stepped down Wednesday amid shoplifting allegations. Photo courtesy Cristina Cifuentes/Twitter

UPI -- Madrid leader Cristina Cifuentes stepped down Wednesday amid shoplifting allegations, which are supported by video footage of the incident.

Cifuentes is accused of shoplifting two bottles of anti-aging cream in 2011. The video footage purportedly shows her handing them over to a supermarket security guard.

Last week, Cifuentes, 53, also surrendered a master's degree she obtained from King Juan Carlos University after allegations that two signatures on the document were forged. Accusations say she never attended classes or took exams for the degree.

At a press conference Wednesday morning, Cifuentes announced her resignation.

"In the political situation in which we are living through, and after having spoken to my team about it, I'm announcing my resignation as the premier of the Madrid region," Cifuentes said. "In life, you have to think about the general interest above the interests of just one person."

You're a bit late coming to that conclusion.

Cifuentes said the video amounted to a "campaign of harassment and demolition that has gone beyond politics."

She also said the shoplifting incident had been a mistake -- "an involuntary thing" that she paid for.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said "a new stage has emerged in Madrid.

"I hope these things do not happen again," he said.

Yeah, good luck with that Prime Minister.

Fighting Islamic Terrorism

‘Own it!’ Terrorism is an Islamic issue, say some Muslims

Panel agrees we have to fight radical ideology in Islam but we can only do that by exposing the truth about Islam itself

Cathy Lynn Grossman RNS

A panel of Muslim leaders, speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Dec. 3, 2015, said it’s critical to recognize the religious roots of terror to defeat it. From left to right: Zudhi Jasser; Naser Khader; Farahnez Ispahani, and Asra Nomani. Photo courtesy of The Heritage Foundation

WASHINGTON (RNS) While details are still unfolding as to why a California Muslim couple turned to murder, Muslims in the West must step up and admit terrorism is rooted in extremist Islam, said four Muslim panelists speaking at a conservative think tank on Thursday (Dec. 3).

They criticized major U.S. Muslim groups that lament such tragedies but say their religion is not responsible. They insisted the violence has roots in Islam, and that Islamist political terror is nurtured in Saudi Arabia’s strict Wahhabi branch of the faith.

And they blasted the Obama administration for steadfastly refusing to brand terror as Islamic extremism. President Obama decried the deaths and pledged a thorough investigation of the attack but cautioned against setting blame based on the killers’ Muslim names.

“President Obama simply does not embrace reality,” said Farahnez Ispahani, a former member of the Pakistani Parliament and author of an upcoming book on that Pakistan’s religious minorities.

She mocked the way that the administration responds to attacks. Rather than calling in progressive Muslim leaders in U.S civil society, she said: “They call in imams and they hold an interfaith event and they are all happy.

“But there is no clear ideological campaign to fight ISIS or Islamists,” she said, to a smattering of applause in the audience of about 50 people. Islam has been “hijacked” and people are afraid if they admit it, it will spark Islamophobia, Ispahani said.

“Terror is a Muslim issue, an Islamic issue within the house of Islam,” said M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, “and we must own it” to fight it. He moderated the event held at the Heritage Foundation, which had been planned after the Paris attacks.

Naser Khader, a member of the Parliament of Denmark for the Conservative People’s Party, said Muslims themselves must lead the fight rather than hide behind excuses that killers are not truly Muslim. Instead, they should condemn Islamist jihadists ”without any excuses.”

“If we the Muslims do not face the problem of violence, how will we ever succeed in lifting this from those powers and bring it into the 21st century?” Khader asked. He called for rereading the Quran in the light of modern times and presenting strong religious arguments for change.

Khader and Ispahani were part of a weeklong “Summit of Western Muslim Voices of Reform against the Islamic State and Islamism.” Under the umbrella of Jasser’s forum, 20 people from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East identified as “Muslim reformers” met to propose ways to counter “the ideologies which fuel global Muslim radicalization.”

Thursday, the finger of blame was pointed directly at Saudi Arabia, which the panelists said stands on strict Quranic literalism. This takes a seventh-century view of unbelievers, women and minorities that allows for terror, murder and deprivation of human rights, they agreed.

“As an evangelical Christian obviously I disagree with Islam fundamentally,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Friday.

“At the same time, I’m very disturbed when I hear the sorts of talk that we’ve been hearing over the last several months about shutting down mosques, about identifying Muslims in this country.

“That is a very dangerous place to be, both at a human rights level but also in terms of religious liberty,” said Moore.

He's right, of course, although one could argue that what we are currently doing, or not doing, is equally dangerous, and perhaps more so. Liberalizing Islam will never fly! People will always gravitate to essential fundamentals of their religious beliefs, and in Islam that is the life of Mohammed.

As the panel pointed out, we must fight radical Islam at the ideological level. But to simply point out that radicalism is wrong and not true Islam is going to accomplish nothing when it is obvious that Mohammed, himself, would be considered an extremist today. He was a murderer, an antisemite, a pedophile in his later years, a liar and a warmonger. He was also incredibly selfish. And, he put the Arab world back under 'the Law' from which Jesus Christ had set us free nearly 700 years earlier.

Of course such inflammatory statements are very dangerous and likely to be counterproductive. But such ideas can be slowly and gently raised in a manner that causes people to think and explore for themselves. It would take courage, and, unfortunately, I don't think there is anyone in the western media with that kind of courage.

Islamic radicalism cannot be defeated without defeating Islam, and that cannot be done on the battlefield.