{"id":378804,"date":"2026-07-19T16:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378804\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:40:12","slug":"fbi-searches-for-victims-after-north-texas-man-accused-of-defrauding-3-2m-from-churches-congregants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378804\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI searches for victims after North Texas man accused of defrauding $3.2M from churches, congregants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Reinaldo Garcia, 53, had ties to several Arlington and Mansfield churches. <\/p>\n<p>ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Federal prosecutors say an Arlington man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-ndtx\/pr\/arlington-resident-indicted-wire-fraud-and-identity-theft-charges-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">took advantage of church networks to fuel a multi-year fraud scheme<\/a> that allegedly drew in more than $3.2 million and involved more than 50 victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A federal grand jury in Fort Worth indicted Richard Reinaldo Garcia, 53, on June 2 on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. The federal indictment lists an unidentified co-conspirator in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office announced the indictment on July 14 and said the FBI is looking for additional victims. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/how-we-can-help-you\/victim-services\/seeking-victim-information\/seeking-victim-information-in-the-richard-r-garcia-gracia-church-a-pesar-de-todo-investigation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The FBI says<\/a> investigators believe &#8220;he primarily targeted church congregants, their family and friends, beginning in at least 2020 to the present.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fraud scheme was carried out across multiple states, the indictment says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was arrested on May 2. The <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/07\/13\/federal-indictment-accuses-arlington-pastor-of-3-2m-fraud-scheme-involving-church-investments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Fort Worth Report says<\/a> he was arrested at DFW Airport. A trial is set for Oct. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege Garcia courted church contacts in North Texas and beyond with promises of \u201csignificant profits\u201d from two kinds of ventures. The first was \u201cchurch flipping,&#8221; which is buying, renovating and reselling church properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Court documents state he would also commit fraud via \u201cjoint venture\u201d deals to stage international Christian music concerts in locales like Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the indictment says, Garcia routed investor money through a web of church-related entities and bank accounts and spent it on operating and personal expenses, making occasional \u201clulling payments\u201d to keep investors at bay. Lulling payments are described as a way for fraudsters to avoid litigation by giving victims compensation to make the fraud seem legitimate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to the indictment, Garcia operated through entities including Ministerio Gracia, Iglesia Gracia de Texas, Gracia Church of Texas, A Pesar de Todo LLC, and MG Kingdom Inc., and directed some investors to characterize transfers as church \u201cdonations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He also allegedly used a victim\u2019s identity information in 2023 to file Texas paperwork listing that person as a managing member of a limited liability company.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Reinaldo Garcia, 53, had ties to several Arlington and Mansfield churches. ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Federal prosecutors say&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-378804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}