Ebenezer Oduntan, former pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) City of David in Kildare, Ireland has been convicted of a range of theft charges, involving more than €125,000, as well as multiple breaches of company law and deception.
As well as stealing money, Mr Oduntan, who faced 87 charges, ran an elaborate fraud, generating payments from the Revenue Commissioners.
When his bank accounts were analysed as part of a criminal investigation into his finances, Oduntan was found to have passed five times more than his declared income through his accounts for the years 2012-2018.
His trial concluded with guilty verdicts on Wednesday at Naas Circuit Court after a three-week hearing. He was convicted of nine company law offences, 73 counts of theft and five counts of deception.
The court was told he stole church funds, including cheques made payable to cash and cheques of up to €20,000 made payable to him personally. He was said to have ran “an elaborate fraud” involving the inflation of donations made to the church, which resulted in the Revenue Commissioners reimbursing more than it should have under the Charitable Donation Scheme.
The church he once led claims to operate on “a mandate to preach the gospel of Jesus to all people and nations, and its members to live a lifestyle of holiness”. It also defines itself as “a bible believing church under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit”.
The church at one point had a membership of more than 100 families, many of whom were the source of the donations from which Oduntan benefited.
Current Pastor of the RCCG City of David in Ireland Albert Adewunmi said member numbers declined in the wake of the scandal.
Midway through his trial, Oduntan pleaded guilty to nine charges of furnishing false information to the Companies Registration Office, five counts of deception and 19 counts of theft. The jury in the case, before Judge Martina Baxter, on Wednesday returned guilty verdicts on all 54 outstanding charges.
After the verdicts were returned, Oduntan was remanded in custody by Judge Baxter and is due to appear before the court again on April 10th.