Gospel for Asia (GFA) founder K.P. Yohannan has died of cardiac arrest, after being struck by a car yesterday while walking near the GFA headquarters near Dallas, multiple sources report.
De acuerdo a un declaración desde Evangelio para Asia, which recently rebranded as GFA World, Yohannan died of “a sudden cardiac arrest in a hospital in Dallas, Texas, where he had been receiving treatment since his accident.” The ministry had al corriente on Tuesday that Yohannan had been “involved in a car accident” and sought prayers.
Kadapilaril Punnoose (K.P.) Yohannan also servido as metropolitan bishop of Believers Eastern Church (BEC), an orthodox denomination which claims 15,000 churches with 3.5 million members worldwide. The church’s Diocese of North America is based at the GFA World headquarters in Wills Point, Texas, located 50 miles east of Dallas.
De acuerdo a un informe en el New Indian Express, which cited BEC spokesperson Father Sijo Pandapallil, Yohannan had been “out for a morning walk” at 7a.m. on Tuesday. The article states Yohannan was “on a county road, which had no walkway.” He was struck by a vehicle but “there is not much clarity about the accident,” the article adds.
Yohannan reportedly was airlifted to a hospital where doctors performed surgery on his lungs. He was reportedly placed under medical observation in the intensive care unit following surgery.
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation” by Christa Brown. To donate, haga clic aquí.
El Informe Roys (TRR) reached out to the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office regarding any details of the accident. A spokesperson stated that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) “handled the accident,” and local officials had no information.
TRR has reached out to Texas DPS for any details of the accident but received no response.
We also reached out to GFA World and Believers Eastern Church but received no other details.
GFA World stated online that the news of the ministry founder’s death comes with “profound grief and sorrow.” An online declaración from BEC used the same language.
Financial scandals mar Yohannan’s legacy
Yohannan founded Gospel for Asia in 1979. An evangelical Christian missionary and humanitarian organization, GFA World has operations in 10 countries, primarily in southeast Asia.
In 2019, the organization settled a class-action lawsuit over alleged misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars in donations. GFA paid $37 million in a settlement with U.S. donors but admitted no wrongdoing.
Founded in 1997 as part of Gospel for Asia, Believers Eastern Church (BEC) has since become a separate legal entity.
BEC emerged when congregations of two indigenous denominations—Church of South India and the Church of North India—sought to embody Anglicanism on the subcontinent, according to the BEC sitio web.
In 2003, upon his consecration as bishop of the BEC, Yohannan took the name Athanasius Yohan I, in honor of St. Athanasius and St. John (Yohan).
In November 2020, India’s Income Tax Department raided the residence and offices of Yohannan and BEC, looking for evidence of tax fraud.
At the time, the tax authority said it had received credible information that Yohannan and his various trusts had illegally used tax-exempt foreign donations intended for helping the poor and destitute for personal and real estate transactions.
Authorities found unexplained cash of approximately 60 million rupees, or about $807,000, during the search, including more than $518,000 in a place of worship in Delhi, El hindú reported. The outlet also said that nearly $77,000 in rupees was found in the trunk of a car near the church’s headquarters.
BEC, which has a global headquarters in Kerala, India, has provided frequent updates on a BEC webpage devoted to the accident and its aftermath.
The statement from Gospel for Asia concludes: “We praise God for allowing His servant the strength to run his race faithfully and with much endurance to the very end. Millions of lives are forever transformed because of his tireless passion and service unto his Savior.”
“May God receive him into the embrace of the saints. Christ is risen! May his memory be eternal!”
This is a developing story and will be updated as further details are released.
Periodista independiente Josh Shepherd escribe sobre fe, cultura y políticas públicas para varios medios outlets. He and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.
Spanish 
English
20 Respuestas
It has been over 9 years now since I began my battle to expose this Billion dollar fraud after I contacted Warren Throckmorton about GFA. In the end the conman died a violent death, which just shows the truth that “God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sows is what he will reap.” He currently is paying the price for being a liar and a great thief. No celebration. Just time to recognize the fear of God. Ultimately, no one gets away with anything.
Fear God. Nobody gets away with anything. Thanks Ralph for those words. God bless you.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 🙏
I’ve been very familiar with KPY, GFA, etc. And I’m not one to just trust blindly. I’m very familiar with what you and possibly others claimed in that lawsuit, tried to get him arrested, etc. I think you are incorrect, pretty sad you’re doing that now. Plenty of pedos never get anything like what you claimed he got from God – I think that’s similar to John McArthur’s and others’ opinions that God is causing everything. I’m very familiar with what government officials did in their audit of GFA / Believers Churches there in India. Since they publicly claimed all money donated would go to indigenous missionaries / pastors / students, children (Bridge of Hope), since they briefly didn’t do that and used a lot of money to pay off mortgage for their headquarters in Texas, saving much on interest, that is the part that I think is a mistake. Publicly calling him a liar, thief, etc – not sure you have any clue, or at least not that much detail of how their ministry was run, etc. But, of course, you have your right to your opinion.
Have you ever looked at the evidence? They paid MILLIONS out of court because they had no chance whatsoever of winning in court before an actual jury. I do not know who you are, but the evidence is out there. What you are saying has no grounds whatsoever in reality. And yes, twice I considered trying to go on to their staff back when I was fooled. I have two friends I introduced to GFA who actually were there in Texas for two years. And the evidence again is very, very high about all of the non-stop lying. Where did you get any of this? Have you personally profited off of this billion dollar fraud? Go back and read through all of the old Warren Throckmorton posts. It is there for anyone to see.
(I fully expected this, just as I got in the old days many such comments from likely Indians being paid to do misinformation. Never saw that with any American fraudsters but India is its own place with its own unique culture.)
I followed the articles and stories in Throckmorton’s blog and even before that, I figured this guy was sketchy. Thank God I was never taken by his con and sent him money. Unfortunately, countless others were.
Here’s my continued reply. Later on I learned about WT’s and others efforts regarding GFA. I didn’t pull away from them because of the possible financial issues, but because of the way they had transitioned to be Orthodox – looked very ritual / Catholic, etc. In WT’s posts I learned about the India government considered it illegal for them to be giving foreign money to the many Believers Churches – through that native missionary sponsorship that thousands had been doing. If that was true, then by India’s rules it seemed they were doing something illegal, so they possibly made the choice to do it anyway, more secret so these pastors / churches could be sponsored / supported. But I found that interesting – never had learned about it till then. Plenty more I could write about the financial suit and all that. I still don’t think they, including his son (his brother), etc are a fraud, con, liars, etc. I was very familiar with how much support went to their churches, bridge of hope centres, students at their Bible colleges, seminary in Kerala, etc. More to follow.
But in this global village anything and everything can be checked out by anyone. What they did to use money that was supposed to go to missionaries and other children, etc, and instead use it to save money on mortgage interest was wrong – and they’ve paid dearly for that. I was familiar with the first person in Canada, who, like me, at his own cost went all over that country promoting GFA. I heard he would sometimes sleep in his car (very cold, snow) the night before he was going to speak somewhere about GFA. I’m wondering when what was discovered went on with Canada funds, that because of that kind of commitment, it really exploded. Again, I do agree that that part was wrong. The other more detailed part I kind of didn’t like was when I would promote Bridge of Hope children that someone could sponsor I had their pictures for a long time – I’m assuming they had already gotten sponsored – why didn’t I get a new batch of photos. I’ll stop there. I’m sorry for my kind of mean initial reply to you. I get it. I just don’t think your complete description of him, GFA is accurate at all.
They setteled for $31 M and around $15-20 M went to the attorneys. The rest was given to some other charity.
We were duped out of a lot of money with GFA lies stating “100% of donations go to mission work overseas,” and it’s worthless ECFA certification.
While I thank God that He is the ultimate judge, I will also pray this dishonest ministry will close forever with KP’s death.
And thank you, Mr.Jesperson, for bringing the facts to light all those years ago. It definitely opened our eyes to his scam.
There was a lot of evidence that KP was diverting the funds he collected to build his own kingdom, like a soccer team, hospital in Kerala , Texas headquarters and many real estate purchases. After the lawsuit was filed he did stop claiming it all went to the field. I don’t think they were ever able to determine where the donations from Canada went. I would say that the Christians he stole from and those he hurt must remember that they have a God given obligation to forgive him.
The man is dead so no revenge against him is possible. There is a big difference between letting go of anger and rage and excusing the inexcusable. I would also note that while he is dead, his son and daughter are not. Nor are others of his partners in crime in India and in “Christian” media and various celebrities who still promote GFA World Scam. A pair I tangled with are Daniel and his brother John Varghese, still active in India. Daniel was named in possession of a large sum of black money, cash the authorities in India seized according to the Indian press. John is a lawyer graduated from their school living in Kerala. So the scam goes on.
Beyond that I have to say that this is the first time I have been thanked publicly from anyone for simply following my conscience in getting this story to someone who had the audience to do something with it. Up to this all I got out of it was push back from those who worshipped KP and refused to see the truth and those who have profited personally from it. It is nice for a change.
Do you know of any charity where they give 100% to the collection to charity?
@Ralph, I tried replying to your reply on my comment – but I had more than 300 words, and I wasn’t allowed to shorten it – and I haven’t been able to try again on my iPhone6 – the box to type the reply doesn’t appear. I’m back on the computer. No, I didn’t make any money from what I did representing GFA here in Sydney and other parts of Australia. I have a lot of firsthand knowledge of what they do – and I was impressed with it. I quit sponsoring a couple pastors and Bridge of Hope child when I hit tough times financially here. Once I rebounded, I just never started sponsoring again. And during that time they set up GFA Australia based up in Toowoomba QLD, and I stopped representing them the way I had. Will continue with another reply (because of word limit).
The way in which KPY died is not in indicator of whether God was pleased with him. Many godly men die tragically and suddenly while some evil men live to 100. Equating the cause of his death with his standing before God is theologically misguided and even dangerous. I would suggest an alternative response to him getting run down – “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”
Or how about the quote mis-attributed to Mark Twain:
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
Let me see if I understand your logic here. Lets say for the sake of argument that you come up with a scheme to steal millions from JESUS CHRIST’S BODY. You execute that scheme and it works so well that you rake in hundreds of millions of dollars by lying and scheming. And so you expect that absolutely nothing will happen in this life or the next. Sounds like atheism to me. Fact: KP is a liar and fraudster. Fact: he conned many Christians out of massive sums of money. Fact: crimes have consequences. That is all I have said. What you are saying is irrelevant to my comments.
Ralph, your understanding of my logic bears little resemblance to my actual argument. It was a simple point – It is unclear that God had him run down as judgement, though God certainly allowed it. I said nothing about how it will go for him when he faces the Judgement Seat of Christ if he were born again or when he faces the Great White Throne judgement if in fact he was truly goat and not a sheep at all.
Rev. KP Yohannan is not a bad person as many portrayed. Many culprits are barking because they didn’t get a bone. His evangelistic movements in India and many third world countries are huge. Many wealthy donated for the cause and also his German wife’s parents, a cologomorate, donated big chunk.
He led a very simple and modest life and wasn’t luxurious like many other evangelist we know.
His money, his charity, his works. He was a Billy Graham of the East with faith and deeds.
Why his death seems very fishy, no police report! Why he was outside on the road? Was he alone, especially a 74 year old person!
In my opinion, something must have happened inside and staged outside for a make everyone foolish.
Where money becomes evil, vultures on its lookout.
Kaufman County wouldn’t have handled the issue. GFA’s facility was in Van Zandt County, which is to the east of Kaufman County. DPS likely wouldn’t have handled it either if it involved a county road, as opposed to FM714 (which runs in front of GFA).