$120 Million Church Fraud Case Split Among 3 Counties

SULLIVAN, Ind. -- A judge has ruled that the criminal cases against a former pastor and his sons charged with bilking church members nationwide out of millions of dollars will be split up among three southwestern Indiana counties.

Vaughn Reeves, 65, and his three sons -- Chip, Chris and Josh -- pleaded not guilty to charges that they duped about 11,000 people into buying bonds worth $120 million for church construction projects, diverting money from new investments to pay off previous investors and pocketing about $6 million.

Special Judge Dena Martin ruled that jurors for the cases would come from outside Sullivan County, where the Reeves' company called Alanar Inc. was based.

Martin on Friday designated nearby Gibson County for Vaughn Reeves and one of his sons, with Daviess County and Martin County as venues for the other two sons.

In June, Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office said, "The Reeves allegedly targeted their victims through their faith and then exploited their religious convictions in order to hide their elaborate Ponzi scheme from potential investors."

Investigators said the men conducted the scheme over a period of about five years.