False Profit: How the House of Prayer Defrauded Military Veterans of $22 Million Through Faith, Fear, and Fraud

On September 10, 2025, FBI agents descended on a nearly $2 million mansion in the West Lake community of Martinez, Georgia—just outside Augusta. Inside, they arrested a man the world knew as Rony Denis, the founder and supreme leader of the House of Prayer Christian Churches of America (HOPCC). But federal investigators had discovered something extraordinary: "Rony Denis" was not his real name. The man who had built a religious empire spanning multiple states, who had commanded absolute obedience from hundreds of congregants, who had siphoned millions from U.S. military veterans—had been living under a stolen identity since 1983.

The real Rony Denis had arrived in the United States through Miami in 1980 and died in 1989. The man who assumed his identity used it to join the U.S. military, fraudulently obtain American citizenship in 2002, and ultimately build one of the most brazen financial fraud operations ever perpetrated under the banner of Christian ministry. Court documents now identify him simply as FNU LNU—First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown.

The 26-count federal indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Georgia names Denis and seven co-defendants in a sprawling conspiracy that allegedly defrauded the U.S. government of over $23.5 million in VA education benefits, orchestrated a $5.2 million real estate "straw buyer" scheme, filed false tax returns, and maintained control over congregants through psychological coercion, forced marriages, and financial exploitation. The FBI has dubbed the investigation "Operation False Profit"—a name that captures both the financial and spiritual dimensions of this betrayal.

I. The Defendants: Eight Leaders, One Criminal Enterprise

The federal indictment names eight individuals who allegedly formed the leadership core of the HOPCC fraud operation. Each played a distinct role in what prosecutors describe as a coordinated, decades-long criminal conspiracy:

II. The GI Bill Scheme: $23.5 Million in Stolen Education Benefits

The centerpiece of the HOPCC fraud operation was a breathtakingly audacious scheme to siphon millions in GI Bill education benefits through the church's unaccredited Bible seminary, the House of Prayer Bible Seminary (HOPBS).

The Setup: Strategic Placement Near Military Bases

HOPCC did not establish churches randomly. According to the indictment, leadership deliberately planted congregations near major military installations—including Fort Stewart and Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower) near Augusta, Georgia, as well as bases in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and other military communities. The strategy was calculated: recruit active-duty service members and veterans into the church, then funnel their education benefits into the seminary.

The Fraud: Phantom Education

Between 2013 and 2022, HOPBS allegedly collected more than $23.5 million in VA education benefits. But according to the indictment and former member testimony, little to no actual education took place. Veterans were pressured to enroll in the seminary, where "classes" consisted of:

• Cleaning church leaders' cars and personal property
• Performing construction work on church-owned buildings
• Attending mandatory daily online meetings that were falsely reported as coursework
• Sitting in rooms doing nothing while attendance was logged as seminary instruction

Marcus Labat, the seminary controller, allegedly submitted dozens of false enrollment certification forms to the VA, claiming students were receiving legitimate theological education. Omar Garcia, the registrar, certified to Georgia state regulators seven times between 2015 and 2021 that the seminary received no federal funds—a blatant lie, as the institution was collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in VA payments.

Veterans who exhausted their GI Bill benefits on this phantom education had been converted into cash for church leaders.

III. The Real Estate Scheme: Straw Buyers and Ruined Credit

The GI Bill fraud was not the only financial scheme. Beginning in 2004, HOPCC leaders allegedly orchestrated a parallel real estate fraud operation that generated over $5.2 million in rental income between 2018 and 2020 alone.

The Straw Buyer Operation

Church members—many of them veterans with VA loan eligibility—were pressured to purchase properties using their VA home loan benefits. But these were not homes for the members. The properties were purchased under members' names while church leadership maintained actual control, collecting rental income and making (or failing to make) mortgage payments.

Anthony Oloans, Denis's executive assistant, allegedly orchestrated this operation. Members who served as straw buyers were left holding the liability: when church leaders stopped making mortgage payments, it was the members' credit that was destroyed. Foreclosures mounted. Veterans who had served their country honorably found their financial futures in ruins—all because they trusted their church leaders.

IV. The Cult of Control: Psychological Coercion and Spiritual Abuse

The financial fraud was enabled by something far darker: a system of totalitarian control that former members and federal investigators describe as cult-like manipulation. Denis did not merely steal money—he first stole autonomy, identity, and the capacity for independent thought.

Extreme Control Over Daily Life

Former members describe an environment of "forced obedience" where virtually every aspect of daily life required permission from leadership:

• Mandatory daily online meetings that functioned as surveillance and indoctrination sessions
• Restrictions on outside contact—members were isolated from family who questioned the church
• Arranged marriages and orchestrated divorces—Denis allegedly dictated who could marry whom and forced couples to separate at his command
• Financial control—members were pressured to tithe their VA disability compensation and turn over financial decisions to leadership
• Housing control—members were required to live in church-owned or church-controlled properties
• "Ex-HOPCC traitor" lists—those who left were publicly branded as traitors and cut off from all remaining members

Coaching Veterans to Maximize Exploitable Benefits

In a particularly cynical twist, HOPCC leaders allegedly coached veterans to obtain 100% VA disability ratings—not to help them receive care they deserved, but to maximize the financial resources available for the church to exploit. Once veterans received their disability compensation, they were pressured to "tithe" those payments back to the church. The veterans' sacrifice and suffering became a revenue stream for their spiritual abusers.

V. The Stolen Identity: A Founder Built on Lies

Perhaps the most stunning revelation in the federal investigation is that the man who demanded absolute trust and obedience from hundreds of followers was himself living a fundamental lie.

Federal investigators discovered that the individual known as "Rony Denis" stole the identity of a real person in 1983. The actual Rony Denis had arrived in the U.S. from Haiti through Miami in 1980 and died in 1989. The impostor used the stolen identity to:

• Enlist in the U.S. military under false pretenses
• Apply for and receive U.S. citizenship in 2002, citing his military service and sponsorship by his American wife
• Establish and lead HOPCC as a religious organization
• Accumulate personal wealth, including the nearly $2 million Martinez mansion where he was arrested

The discovery came when investigators, searching for passports linked to deceased individuals' Social Security numbers, found that the real Rony Denis's identity was being actively used by someone else. The man who had built an empire on spiritual authority and divine calling could not even truthfully state his own name.

VI. The Child Sexual Abuse: A Separate Horror

As if the financial fraud and cult manipulation were not enough, a separate federal indictment charged Bernadel Junior Semexant—a pastor at the HOPCC Hinesville, Georgia branch—with the sexual abuse of a minor.

While the details of Semexant's case are distinct from the broader fraud indictment, the existence of child sexual abuse within the same organization raises urgent questions about institutional culture. When an organization operates with the level of secrecy, control, and resistance to outside accountability that characterized HOPCC, it creates conditions where all forms of abuse can flourish unchecked.

The pattern is tragically familiar: closed systems that resist external oversight, demand absolute loyalty, and punish those who question leadership create environments where predators operate with impunity. The same walls that kept congregants from leaving also kept the truth from getting out.

VII. The Timeline: From Recruitment to Reckoning

The HOPCC case is not an isolated incident. It fits within a broader and deeply troubling pattern of religious organizations specifically targeting vulnerable populations for exploitation.

Military service members and veterans are particularly susceptible to this kind of predation. Many are young, far from home, and seeking community. They have been trained to respect authority and follow orders. They possess valuable government benefits—GI Bill education funds, VA home loans, disability compensation—that can be redirected by those who gain their trust.

HOPCC exploited every one of these vulnerabilities. They offered community to the isolated. They demanded obedience from those trained to obey. And they systematically converted government benefits into personal wealth for church leaders.

IX. What Must Change: Protecting Veterans and Congregants

The House of Prayer Christian Churches of America case is staggering in its scope: $23.5 million in stolen education benefits. $5.2 million in real estate fraud. Hundreds of veterans with exhausted benefits and ruined credit. Families torn apart by forced marriages and orchestrated divorces. A child sexually abused by a pastor. And at the center of it all, a man whose very identity was stolen—a fraud built upon a fraud.

But the deepest damage is spiritual. Hundreds of people placed their trust in leaders who claimed to speak for God, who demanded obedience as a condition of salvation, who wielded eternal damnation as a weapon of control. Those people's faith has been weaponized against them. Their trust has been betrayed. Their relationship with God has been mediated by criminals.

The FBI named this investigation "Operation False Profit"—and the double meaning is intentional. These were false prophets who generated false profits. They claimed divine authority while committing federal crimes. They preached salvation while engineering exploitation. They built a church on a foundation of lies, theft, and abuse.

Conclusion: The True Cost of False Profit

The House of Prayer Christian Churches of America case is staggering in its scope: $23.5 million in stolen education benefits. $5.2 million in real estate fraud. Hundreds of veterans with exhausted benefits and ruined credit. Families torn apart by forced marriages and orchestrated divorces. A child sexually abused by a pastor. And at the center of it all, a man whose very identity was stolen—a fraud built upon a fraud.

But the deepest damage is spiritual. Hundreds of people placed their trust in leaders who claimed to speak for God, who demanded obedience as a condition of salvation, who wielded eternal damnation as a weapon of control. Those people's faith has been weaponized against them. Their trust has been betrayed. Their relationship with God has been mediated by criminals.

The FBI named this investigation "Operation False Profit"—and the double meaning is intentional. These were false prophets who generated false profits. They claimed divine authority while committing federal crimes. They preached salvation while engineering exploitation. They built a church on a foundation of lies, theft, and abuse.