By ROY C. MABASA
Three members of the Davao City-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name (or KOJC) church were arrested on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in different locations in the United States as part of an ongoing probe on human trafficking and fundraising scam.
Multiple reports quoting FBI officials identified the arrested individuals as Guia Cabactulan, 59, Marissa Duenas, 41, and Amanda Estopare, 48, all members and alleged administrators of the KOJC in the U.S.
They were arrested during morning raids at KOJC’s offices in Van Nuys, Glendale and Los Angeles in Southern California, and another one in Virginia.
It was alleged in the report that from October 2013, the KOJC would seek visas for its members under the guise of performing in events in the United States.
Once in the US, those members were allegedly sent to different locations and forced to work as “volunteers” to raise money. The workers were allegedly sent to beg for donations on the streets, using the Children’s Joy Foundation as a front and beneficiary.
The arrests came after people who escaped from the ring told the FBI that their passports were confiscated and they were allegedly beaten if they fail to meet their daily quotas from the solicitation.
In addition, the FBI is also looking at “documented” sham marriages and phony school enrolments that had been reportedly facilitated by the church over the span of 20 years. Some $20 million were reportedly sent back to the KOJC headquarters in Davao City as a result of the scheme.
Furthermore, the report described Cabactulan as the top U.S. KOJC administrator who allegedly withheld the passports of their volunteers and was the one who oversaw the operations, according to the complaint.
Duenas, on the other hand was reportedly responsible for falsifying documents and information to immigration officials, while Estopare was allegedly in charge of the collections.
KOJC was established in 1985 in Davao City by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God.” It claims to have about six million members worldwide.
In 2018, Quiboloy himself was briefly detained in Hawaii after U.S. authorities discovered $350,000 in cash and rifle parts inside his private jet.
