Pastor Cristian Popescu $13 Million Fraud Charges: God Chose You to Invest, Prosecutors Say October 2026

He told them God had chosen them. That was the pitch, according to federal prosecutors, and it worked on more than 30 people. Cristian Popescu, 46, pastor of Passion for Christ, a Christian congregation in Kirkland, Washington, allegedly told members of his own church that God had chosen them to invest in his company, and then watched $13 million of their money flow into a business that prosecutors say was largely a mirage.

Popescu, a Romanian citizen living in Bothell, Washington, pleaded not guilty on October 13, 2026, to ten counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. He was arraigned in federal court in Seattle and released under electronic monitoring. His trial is set for December 21, 2026, and if convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count and 10 years for each money laundering count.

The charges are only allegations, and Popescu is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. But the indictment paints a detailed picture of a scheme that prosecutors say ran for a decade, built on trust earned from a pulpit and spent in offices, stock trades, and personal accounts.

Pastor Cristian Popescu Fraud Charges: The Followone Investment Scheme

At the centre of the case is Followone Inc., a Bellevue company Popescu described as an e-commerce platform and social network, a global marketplace where users could buy and sell cars, real estate, health care, food, travel, and more. Prosecutors say the platform was largely nonfunctional and could not complete a single customer purchase, despite Popescu's claims of millions in revenue and a coming listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

At one point, Popescu allegedly claimed the company was worth $1.4 billion, despite knowing it had little or no value. He rented large offices, published false press releases about the company's success, and told investors that leading software engineers were working to improve the platform. ChurchLeaders reported that the company had only three employees behind the impressive front.

The investors were not strangers. They were people from his own congregation, people who trusted him as their pastor.

Prosecutors say he used his religious leadership to recruit them, telling them their money would advance the church's mission. Some were encouraged to tap retirement accounts, take out personal or home equity loans, and use their children's college savings. One victim wired nearly a million dollars in a single transaction.

These charges allege that a religious leader abused the trust of his fellow believers to steal millions of dollars for his own personal benefit.

Those were the words of Mike Herrington, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Seattle field office, and they captured why this case has shaken Christians far beyond Washington state. A pastor is supposed to guard his flock. Prosecutors say this one fleeced it.

Popescu Church Fraud: Where the $13 Million Went

The indictment alleges that money intended for Followone was diverted through shell companies and fabricated invoices. More than $4.5 million was allegedly transferred into accounts belonging to Popescu and his family members. He allegedly paid himself over $1 million in wages between 2017 and 2024, and placed his wife on the company's payroll, paying her approximately $300,000 despite claims that she performed no work.

Prosecutors also say Popescu promised investors positions on the company's board in exchange for investments of $1 million, and required some to sign non-disclosure agreements. The offices in Bellevue, the press releases, the talk of a Nasdaq listing: all of it, investigators say, was designed to project a legitimacy the business never had.

Then came the moment that has become the story's darkest detail. When some investors demanded refunds, Popescu allegedly accused them of being demonically possessed. It is a charge that turns the usual language of pastoral care inside out: doubt, which in any honest investment deserves an answer, was treated as a spiritual defect to be shamed away.

For the victims, that accusation must have stung twice. They had already lost money they could not afford to lose, money meant for retirement, for college, for the future.

Now the man they trusted as a shepherd was telling them their questions were evidence of evil spirits. It is the kind of betrayal that lingers long after any court case ends.

Church Investment Fraud Warning: Lessons for Congregations

The case has become a painful teaching moment for churches everywhere. Financial experts and pastors alike have long warned congregations to keep spiritual authority and financial advice in separate rooms, and to treat any investment pitched from a pulpit with special caution. Trust is a gift, but it is not due dilligence, and a shared faith is not a business plan.

That warning echoes through other recent church news, from a megachurch pastor's call for a discipleship revolution at the Hispanic Christian leadership summit to new bishops taking up their posts in England and other faith news from around the world. Healthy churches, those stories suggest, are built on teaching, accountability, and service, not on secret deals and promises of riches.

USA Today reached out to Passion for Christ and to Popescu's attorney for comment, and the congregation itself now faces a long road back. Trust, once broken this publicly, is slow to rebuild, and the members who lost money must now decide whether their church can ever feel like home again.

The wider Christian community is watching the case for another reason too. Every fraud by a pastor becomes ammunition for cynics who say all churches are cons, and every honest pastor pays a little of the price. That unfairness is part of the damage: one man's alleged crimes stain the reputation of thousands of faithful ministers who would never dream of touching their members' savings.

Cristian Popescu Trial December 2026: What Happens Next

Popescu's trial is scheduled for December 21, 2026, in Seattle, and prosecutors will have to prove every element of the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt. The defence has not yet laid out its case in public, and the presumption of innocence remains the law's promise to every defendant, pastor or not.

For the investors, the trial will be a test of patience as much as justice. Court cases move slowly, money already spent is hard to recover, and the emotional wounds of betrayal do not heal on a court timetable.

Some may recover something. Many may recover nothing but the truth of what happened to them.

And the question now is the one every congregation should be asking before the next pitch, the next promise, the next voice from the front saying God chose you: who checks the books, who asks the hard questions, and who protects the flock when the shepherd himself is the one at the door with his hand out.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.