The FBI today arrested the leaders of Joshua Media Ministries International (JMMI) in a series of raids across several states for allegedly using psychological and physical abuse to coerce victims into soliciting millions.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, JMMI leaders, David Taylor and Michelle Brannon, ran a forced labor organization and a multi-million-dollar money laundering conspiracy. The department called the arrests a “nationwide takedown” of a human trafficking scheme that operated in Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Missouri.
Taylor, 53, and Brannon, 56, were taken into custody this morning in North Carolina and Florida, after a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned a ten-count indictment.
Additionally, the FBI raided JMMI properties in Tampa, Houston, North Carolina, and Michigan this morning, according to reports from multiple news sites.
“Money laundering is tax evasion in progress,” said Karen Wingerd, an agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation, Detroit Field Office said in a statement. “And in this case, the proceeds funded an alleged human trafficking ring and supported a luxury lifestyle under the guise of a religious ministry.”
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Based in Taylor, Michigan, JMMI is also known as the Kingdom of God Global Church (KOGGC). The ministry claims to offer dream interpretations, prophecies, miraculous healings, and more, according to its website.
Taylor describes himself as an “Apostle” who has personally met Jesus face-to-face multiple times. Taylor also boasts that he has brought multiple people back from the dead.
Brannon serves as JMMI’s executive director.
The Department of Justice said that Taylor and Brannon forced victims to work at call centers for the ministry. These centers then brought in millions, which leaders then used to buy themselves luxury items.
Taylor has received around $50 million in donations since 2014, the Department said.
The Department added that if convicted, Taylor and Brannon face up to 20 years in prison on each of their alleged crimes.
The leaders have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor, eight counts of forced labor, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Roys Report (TRR) reached out to JMMI for comment but did not hear back prior to publication.
Taylor told victims they would suffer in hell
According to the indictment, Taylor and Brennan’s schemes centered around call centers that have been using phone solicitors to raise money for JMMI since 2013.
The call center workers were unpaid and had to raise excessive amounts of money for the ministry. If they didn’t meet the extreme fundraising goals, they faced severe punishments.
At one point, Taylor texted a staff member to take away workers’ food if they didn’t reach a fundraising goal. “We must make them fast and pray!!” he reportedly said.
They would also be punished through humiliation, sleep deprivation, forced “repentance,” and spiritual threats of divine judgment.
To encourage donations, Taylor forced the workers to lie and say that the money would be spent on charitable work, like combating human trafficking.
Instead, Taylor and Brannon used the money to purchase luxury properties, luxury vehicles, and sporting equipment such as a boat, jet skis, and ATVs.
Taylor has also recruited people to work as his “armor bearers,” who acted as Taylor’s personal servants and served him around the clock, the indictment said.
The armor bearers, who were also unpaid, provided Taylor food and transportation, maintained his house and car, and ensured that any women transported to Taylor’s house took Plan B.
Taylor told his victims that if they disobeyed him, they would be “defying God and will suffer in hell,” according to the indictment.
Taylor controlled every aspect of these workers’ lives, the indictment said. He reportedly forced them to sleep in the call center and stay there at all times, unless given permission to leave.
Additionally, Taylor required his workers to legally declare themselves homeless so that he could have control of the government funds given to them.
Raids conducted across the country
Alongside the indictment, the FBI raided multiple JMMI properties this morning.
FOX 26-TV News in Houston reported that agents stormed into a hotel owned by the ministry and escorted out 17 individuals.
The former hotel was going to be used as a Bible school, campus, and housing center for missionaries and students, according to Taylor.
FBI Houston told TRR in a statement, “The FBI is present at the 14300 block of the North Freeway in Houston, TX, conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity. Due to it being an active scene and an open investigation, no other information will be publicly released at this time.”
WRAL-TV News in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, witnessed an FBI raid of a home in Durham that is believed to be owned by someone connected to JMMI. In footage of the event, the house displayed a large banner with the ministry’s other name, Kingdom of God Global Church.
FOX 13-TV News in Tampa Bay, Florida, said that the FBI arrived early in the morning at a Tampa house owned by the ministry and arrested Taylor there. Additionally, WKBD-TV News in Detroit reported that agents entered ministry property in Taylor, Michigan.
FBI Detroit and FBI Tampa declined to comment further to TRR.
JMMI has been accused of being a cult for years
For years, JMMI has been accused of running a cult-like ministry built on intimidation and manipulation by former JMMI members and newspaper exposés.
In 2019 exposé from the News-Herald in Southgate, Michigan, victims shared that the ministry was “a slave labor cult.”
One former worker said that he had to meet a $500 daily donation quota and was “always sleep-deprived.”
That same year, gospel singer Vicki Yohe said that Taylor has manipulated women with pricey gifts and explicit images of them. She also contended that Taylor warned her she would get cancer if she spoke out against him.
Taylor’s ex-wife, Tabitha Taylor, said that her ex-husband had multiple affairs while they were married.
In 2021, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of JMMI but granted nonprofit status to Taylor’s Kingdom of God Global Church, as TRR previously reported.
In 2022, Taylor’s church purchased an $8.3 million mansion and guest house in Tampa, Florida, to function as a tax-exempt parsonage.
Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.
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14 Responses
I’m sick and tired of these false ministers and their abuse and why don’t people wake up to these scams??I’m glad you are reporting it to make it known, but how can so-called ministers be so calloused not to have a conscience? I guess their consciences are “seared” like the scripture says. I hope the courts throw them in jail for the rest of their lives. This is outrageous! Give the money back to the people and pay the workers! This makes me so angry! May God help the innocents who were duped to open their eyes to what happened to them and may they receive healing from the True Jesus, the Spirit of Truth, and the One Who will never leave nor forsake them!
I agree. All the properties and assets should be sold and proceeds used to pay back all the donors who were duped into funding this man’s deceitful work and victims of his immorality.
They can call themselves ministers but they certainly are not. Wolves preying on weak,immature,naive christian’s. No depth in the word = No discernment !
Actually Barbara I’m sick and tired of people being so gullible and needy to not ask themselves why are these people so special. Americans stop buying into the fear. Ask God if they are your people or just more Elmer Gantrys. Stop it and use discretion. These type of scamvanglists have a track record going back to the eighties. Stop playing the fool. God don’t need your money. Paula white offered seven blessings if you gave her $1000.00. Stop it. I’m exhausted over these scamvanglists making money.
Were there locations in Oklahoma City?
According to the story only in Michigan, Florida, Texas, and Missouri.
Excellent work. Now if only they would bust Scientology.
The only difference between this man and some of the mainstream tele-evangelists who fleece the flock of God for price-based benefits that Christ secured on the cross is that he lacked respectability and appeared to cross the wrong people. Telling people they are under a curse for disobeying “spiritual leaders”, demanding complete fealty and submission to men, extra marital affairs, living in extravagance while those who serve him live in near penury, the armor-bearer cult that makes unpaid vassals of vulnerable young men…it goes on and on.
I wonder who in the administration this man crossed to have his properties raided?
The problem here is more than a few bad apples. The problem is the system, traditions and theology that props up men like this along with others whose corruption is far less obvious. There is a bunch of revisionist history concerning the “revivals” that started this whole mess. Dig into the history for there is the light that will make all things clear. The history paints a picture that these snakes have always been with us. Learn how to spot them, and do not put them on pedestals, for that is idolatry, that God absolutely hates! The true faith is simple but requires time and devotion to know Jesus and walk with Him day by day in humility. You do not need the books or videos of all the celebrities. They will just confuse you.
Jesus warned us long ago about men like this one. Listen to Jesus and learn how to hear His voice yourself. You cannot hear it reliably from others. Be a sheep who knows Him and becomes like Him. Do not be a goat like this fraudster who loves no one and lies about knowing Jesus. I saw a cell in hell many years ago reserved for a goat. It was the most real place I have ever experienced and the most sobering. I put this testimony up online, just click on my name to see it if you want. I recommend hell to no one, paradise is far better, but it does require commitment to follow the real Jesus, even when it costs you temporarily.
This is the most encouraging thing I have heard all day.
This is the inevitable fruit of the prosperity gospel. They don’t preach repentance and obedience to God. They preach Christianity as a get-rich-quick scheme. I don’t believe the majority of the donors care about supporting missionaries as much as they care about getting a financial reward from God.
Maybe if people read the Bible instead of reading the latest books written by the prosperity pimps they would have the discernment to distinguish between a shepherd and a wolf.
We are our own problem. One of the newspaper articles discussed a victim and his desire to “just get into ministry” — so many Christians say they “want a ministry” and get fixated on this. It’s no more than our own narcissism at play. It seems to affect women in greater numbers.
We must examine our own motivations. Here in our small-ish southern town, we have a growing “Christian” ministry. A wolf-in-sheeps-clothing husband/wife team attracts (mostly) women by appealing to their own selfish desires to be a big-shot counselor of inner healing and to have their own ministries. They also appeal to men through a ministry where they seem to offer “healing” from various (sex) addictions. They do nothing of the sort: they collect vast amounts of personal intel, money, and worst of all, your soul. There’s more but I will stop there as to not identify them.
We must not be fuel for these fires.
I wonder what many of those who say they want to start a ‘Ministry’ really mean. Is it to serve the church and the overall public or start a tax-free organization to make lots or money to feed their need to have nice stuff and take advantage of people?
I know there were stories about this group years ago on the news but no action was taken. Finally the authorities have stepped in and have taken action.
Inevitably the leaders of this cult and some of their very dedicated followers will claim they are being persecuted and victimized but such claims are common in our times by abusive leaders.