ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A minister at a secretive church in North Carolina has been sentenced to 34 months in prison and ordered to pay $466,960 in restitution for his role in an unemployment fraud scheme involving businesses owned by members of the congregation. “I’ve come here to admit what I’ve done is wrong,” Covington told U.S. District Court Judge Martin Reidinger before he was sentenced. The church has hundreds of members in Spindale, North Carolina, and a few thousand in churches in Brazil and Ghana. Between the letters and the crowd of well-dressed church members filling the rows in court, the judge wondered what happened to Covington. Covington is described by former congregants as the highest-ranking member of the church to be charged in the unemployment case.

Source: National Post April 18, 2019 21:21 UTC