THE HOUSE OF PRAYER EXPOSE (HOPCC): PART 2
Please Note: Our intention at FACT is never to libel or damage anyone’s reputation. The purpose of our work is to educate the public and also for HOPCC leadership to understand the severity of the allegations against them. Moreover, please know that all statements made in this expose are according to our opinion at FACT, based upon signed affidavits, complaints and evidence we received from alleged victims of HOPCC, family members of those involved, etc. and through our analysis of this information according to the B.I.T.E. model (developed by cult expert Steven Hassan).
The Coastal Courier, a local newspaper in Hinesville, GA, published an article this year entitled, "Real estate fraud allegations leveled at church leaders." The article states that several former members of the HOPCC allege that many high ranking church members, including the founder Rony Denis, are involved in real estate fraud and forgery (see attached).
When we spoke with Rev. Yorke over the phone to discuss his experiences with HOPCC, he elaborated more on the alleged real estate fraud, saying that members are coerced into using their credit and finances in order to buy homes, which are then rented back to members of the church in order to produce an income for HOPCC. Another complaint states the following in support of this claim, “Many cannot buy homes because the leader [Denis] used their names to own more properties in Hinesville.”
We received a list containing over 135 homes where allegedly all rental income earned goes directly to Pastor Denis.
Some ex-members of the church who filed complaints with our office had this to say in their affidavits regarding the alleged real estate and financial fraud:
1) “As a minister of HOPCC and also as a US army veteran I was sucked in by the cult leader Rony Denis and abused and taken advantage of due to the desire for being a zealot for Christ and to help people. Rony Denis destroyed my finances and crippled my family. Rony Denis and his cohort Anthony Oloans would fabricate my income and inflate the amount so they could use my credit to put loans in my name. He purchased a home in Hinesville, GA in my name using my VA loan and I had nothing to do with any of the process other than signing the papers, from that point forward my house would be refinanced without me knowing, and also equity was taken out from the house without me signing my signature on any documents, and I received no money from this transaction…I have no control over my house and they are renting my house out and I receive no benefits or income from this.”
2) “Anthony Oloans tried to get me to take out a mortgage on a House in Greensboro NC 27407. Property known as 2630 Merritt Drive. He did all the paperwork and talked to a mortgage company. He gave them falsified income and falsified job employment…Once again in the year 2015 Anthony Oloans called my husband to see if I would take out a loan to help the church to build a new church but I would be doing this for the Lord.”
3) “…during my time in HOPCC they would put loads of pressure to take out Navy Federal Credit Union Loans in my name as well as my wife’s name. These loans were being offered by Navy Federal Credit Union to help account holders do some home improvement, but instead they used them to build their new church building. So my wife and I had over $100,000 in loans.”
According to evidence provided, an Army headquarters in Fort Stewart, GA blacklisted a company called People Helping People LLC (and its subsidiaries) that was owned and operated by leaders of the HOPCC, which has since been permanently revoked (see attached).
Mr. John Rodriquez, listed in the above document, was a long-time member and employee of the church for over ten years. He recently left and has been revealing the inner workings of the church ever since, including through a website he helped to create with other ex-members who claim to have been victimized by HOPCC. The website address is http://www.hopcc.com
On his website, Mr. Rodriquez states his experience with Pastor Rony Denis, which supports the allegations of real estate fraud and spiritual abuse:
“I found myself doing less and less Church work, and slowly Rony Denis was having me do real estate types of jobs. This would have been fine had it been legitimate Church real estate, but it was more crooked than one could imagine. Ten years of working in the “ministry” and all I was doing was generating over $100,000.00 of real estate income every month and giving it all to Denis, and on top of that they made me purchase property, and purchased property with out my permission in my name, had me put it on the rental market, and give all the money that came from these properties to them. I never benefitted from all this work I was doing. I was told my reward is in Heaven. It was a normal occurrence for Rony Denis to demand reports from me on a daily basis to see how much money I was bringing him, and he would scream and yell at me if the money wasn’t right. He would tell me if the houses didn’t get rented within a certain time, or if all the money didn’t come in that he would kick me out of the church, and say he would pray curses and judgement upon me. He would often refer to it as all his money, not God’s, not the churches, but his. Here I was, young, working with out pay, paying full rent in the church house I was living in, thinking I was doing it for God, when the man was exploiting my willingness to sacrifice, so that he could have two beach homes in Miami and Vero beach. Now I’m still willing to serve God without pay, and since I left that’s exactly what I’m doing, so I’m just qualifying that this part of the story isn’t about me not getting paid, but rather that my willing heart was abused.”
Mr. Rodriquez also alleges this about Mr. Oloans (an employee of the church): “Oloans literally stole my properties by forging mine and my wife's signatures on the 6th of September when I was at Ft. Campbell.” The documents below show two very different looking signatures even though supposedly signed at the same time (according to the time stamp), which we believe lends support to this allegation since it is obvious that the signer of these documents was not able to duplicate the signature properly.
In addition to the numerous allegations of fraud, Rev. Yorke also spoke of the church strongly influencing the congregation to vote for and promote certain local politicians during elections in order to keep them in power for the benefit of the church. Rev. Yorke believes that these politicians have been “bought off” by church leadership. Another complaint we received seems to support this allegation, “…Hinesville sheriff is bought by the church. Church was asked to vote for him so he can defend the church. I myself personally participated.”
Members of the church are also accused of trying to kidnap Mr. Rodriquez’s son on the day that he and his family decided to leave the church for good:
“The day we left was crazy. There was one brother that I wanted to let know, because we were close through out all of House of Prayer. He was my friend, I didn’t want to leave him in the dark, so I started to tell him what was going on, he didn’t want to here me out, the rest is history. At this time my wife and I had a lot of our stuff moved into storage, but that brother called and told on me. I wasn’t home but my wife and son were. My wife called me and told me to call the police because Anthony Oloans was in our house calling for my Son trying to take him. She had took my Son and locked herself in our bedroom, Thats when two brothers were dispatched to break in to my house to try to get to my wife and Son, they had Denis on the speaker phone, and they kicked down the door to where my wife and Son were. while this was going on, Oloans had pad lock the garage and disconnected the garage door opener so that my wife couldn’t drive out, then he popped the hood, and ripped the battery out. So they broke into my wifes bed room, while her only way of escape was gone, so that they could take my son, and convince us to stay (Real Christians). So about this time I showed up with the police, and confronted Oloans, about why he tried to kidnap my son. Later that day I got word that they said I had lost it and it was evident that the spirit of God had left me. Put yourself in my shoes, worked like a slave for 10 years without pay, your pastor gets mixed up in witchcraft, they try to steal your kid and break down the door to the bed room where your wife and kid are trying to stay safe, and they want me to walk in like a hippy and “say peace be unto all of you devils, go ahead and kid nap my son”.
Online we found information and media articles that seem to support many of the allegations being made against the HOPCC and its leadership:
News articles and videos:
Real estate fraud allegations leveled at church leaders: http://coastalcourier.com/archives/87574/preview/
Former members allege church is a cult: http://coastalcourier.com/archives/86799/preview/
Tempers flare during, after meeting: http://coastalcourier.com/archives/87337/preview/
NBC Local News: https://m.facebook.com/story.php…
Online comments from this website: http://www.topix.com/…/former-members-allege-church-is-a-cu…
“They actually worship the head pastor, Rony Denis. Exposing them is worth it all if only one person gets saved from this criminal organization. What will it take to shut them down? Kool-aid communion like Jim Jones? Hopefully investigations will open soon and hopefully save some lives before it's too late! People are scared to death in there under Rony Denis' spell of psychological abuse.”
“Keep spreading the news! These people are taking advantage of our veterans!”
Informative blog posts from HOPCC.com:
The title of the HOPCC.com website is “The Truth about House of Prayer Christian Church (HOPCC) and Rony Denis Exposed”. We believe it is the most informative website about this church online with over one hundred blog posts including supporting evidence. We advise anyone interested in researching further about HOPCC and its affiliate churches to visit the website: www.hopcc.com
Tomorrow we will delve more into the allegations in Part 3 of our expose. If you believe you have been harmed by the HOPCC in any way, please contact our office at: https://www.familiesagainstcultteachings.org/Support/
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