Washington Pastor Charged in $13M Investment Scheme

Prosecutors say Cristian Popescu targeted parishioners' retirement and children's college savings accounts.

Cristian Popescu, pastor of Passion for Christ, a church in Kirkland, Washington, has been charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering in connection with a $13 million investment scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The indictment alleges that Popescu stole from his parishioners by encouraging them to invest in Followone Inc., a fraudulent social marketing company he created in 2015.

Cristi Popescu in Nov. 2024 / Video screenshot @Passion for Christ Church

Popescu, a citizen of Romania, lives in Bothell, Washington.

Popescu used the trust his victims placed in him to deceive them into unwise financial transactions, the indictment said. He allegedly told parishioners that God had chosen them to invest in the company and that doing so would benefit the local community. He specifically pursued their retirement accounts and their children’s college savings accounts.

Popescu allegedly transferred some of the invested funds directly to his personal account and to the accounts of his wife and family. About $4.5 million went into his personal checking and investment accounts, according to the indictment. He also allegedly paid himself more than $1 million in Followone wages from 2017 to 2024 and paid his wife more than $300,000 in wages even though she was not a true employee. Five of the seven monetary transactions listed in the indictment were for $300,000 or more, and one investor lost nearly $1 million.

More than 30 investors were deceived by the scheme, according to the indictment.

“Popescu lured investors from his church with fake marketing materials, websites, and expensive offices, and then took their money for his own luxuries and day trading, betraying them financially and faithfully,” said acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd in a statement.

According to the indictment, Popescu portrayed the company as highly successful, claiming it was worth $1.4 billion and would soon be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In reality, the company had three employees and consisted of “non-functional screens,” the indictment said.

To make it appear that real e-commerce transactions were taking place on the site, Popescu allegedly purchased data from MarketCheck and other data brokers. To attract the attention of banks, he also allegedly gave his employees fake titles and positions within Followone. To meet with investors, he bought an expensive office in downtown Bellevue.

Popescu allegedly instructed his victims to move their retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs at an unnamed investment company. He then asked them to move the money again into a Followone account he controlled. He kept up the deception by forming shell companies and requiring investors to sign nondisclosure agreements.

During in-person conversations, Popescu required investors to turn off their phones and disable “smart” listening devices such as Amazon’s Alexa.

He was eventually evicted from the office for failing to pay more than $350,000 in rent. He also ran out of money to pay his three employees. None of this was disclosed to investors, Floyd’s office said.

When investors asked for their money back, Popescu invoked his authority as a pastor and told some investors they were demonically possessed, according to the indictment.

Popescu was released on electronic monitoring pending his trial, which is scheduled for Dec. 21.

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