Folsom fraud probe riles up religious community

By Roger Phelps

The Telegraph

Even before his arrest Wednesday, fraud suspect Stephen Wilson was an acute embarrassment to a prominent area church.

And while the church is not named in a federal probe of Wilson, other of Wilson's former religious associates are named in IRS and FBI documents.

Wilson, of Folsom, was district youth director for a time at Sacramento's Capital Christian Center, said senior pastor Rick Cole.

Wilson's Shake the Nations ministry fund-raised for its Christian missions abroad in part through events held at the Christian center. No suspicion attaches to the Christian center, according to Internal Revenue Service court filings.

"He was doing missions, and we had groups on trips with him," Cole said. "It turned negative when, while leading groups, he started having signs of issues."

Investigators have presented to the U.S. Attorney's Office evidence for their belief that Wilson's Christians In Crisis Investment Fund was a Ponzi scheme, a personal money pool from which Wilson paid bogus returns to early investors with cash from later investors -- not from any earned investment proceeds. Agents believe Wilson then played the stock market, badly, with the bulk of the loot. Suspected shenanigans among ministries and private accounts allowed Wilson to buy a $1 million Folsom house and a $168,000 sports car, federal warrant documents state. An indictment of Wilson on the evidence must be handed down by March 11, or Wilson would be freed.

Cole of the Capital Christian Center church said he suspected that Wilson, partly with money raised with the church's help, ran foreign youth missions the same way the FBI suspects Wilson ran the CIC Investment Fund -- as a kind of Ponzi scheme.

"This is just my opinion," Cole said. "Over the years, he was using the next trip's money chasing the last trip's bills. He'd put payments for trips on his credit card, then the kids would pay him."

Filings in a 2005 bankruptcy by Wilson show credit-card use by Wilson to pay for foreign-mission trips.

"The largest unsecured creditor … was American Express, in the amount of $538,191.13," IRS Special Agent Don Daley wrote in a warrant filing. "Wilson stated he utilized the American Express credit card for business activities, purchase of equipment, travel and airline fares for his corporation, Shake the Nations."

Named in federal warrant documents are Wilson associates Steve Barham and Bobby Bystrowski. Roseville resident Chuck Moores contacted the Telegraph Thursday, saying he was a scarred veteran of financial dealings with Wilson, Barham and Bystrowski, and wanted to contact the FBI.

"Wilson did brag about his time as youth leader at Capital Christian Center," Moores said.

Moores described a visit to CIC Investment Fund offices in Folsom.

"Steve Barham invited me, and my wife and I went," Moores said. "Wilson was not there. Bystrowski was there. They showed me how they do it. I believe I counted a total of 34 computer monitors on the wall. It was quite impressive. They were very convincing."

At a second meeting, Moores said, Wilson "put on a dog-and-pony show" that also was convincing. He invested in the fund.

Moores said he's not convinced that Barham or Bystrowski knew of Wilson's suspected manipulation of the fund. He added that as a Christian, he feels pity for Wilson.

Pastor Cole of Capital Christian Center said Barham was known to him but Bystrowski wasn't.

"He (Barham) has been here before," Cole said.

A federal warrant document states that one investor of more than $425,000 with Wilson told the IRS she did so because she trusted Barham, "her chiropractor of 20 years."

Barham's Sacramento practice has been advertised for sale since July. He did not return repeated phone messages.

Warrant documents state that "associated with Bystrowski" is a business called Opus Capital Holdings. The company has an office in Sacramento. IRS Special Agent Don Daley lumped Bystrowski's Opus Capital Holdings with Wilson's Shake the Nations, writing, "Both Opus Capital and Shake the Nations share similar patterns as seen with Christians in Crisis."

A phone at Sacramento's Opus Capital Holdings rang unanswered by human or machine during Thursday and Friday.

Christians in Crisis Investment Fund, Wilson's company in Folsom, mimics the name of a Sacramento-based ministry, Christians in Crisis International. Bystrowski's company name mimics that of another entity of comparatively high profile, Menlo Park-based Opus Capital Group.

Spokeswoman Stacy Pena said "no affiliation whatsoever" exists between the Menlo Park company and Bystrowski's Sacramento company, and that she had never heard of him.

IRS Special Agent Arlette Lee said she could not specify whether Bystrowski or Barham is a suspect in the fraud investigation. Their names appear in an asset-seizure warrant affidavit filed in the Wilson investigation.

"I can't go beyond what's in the warrant documents, but asset seizures provide information, and it's safe to assume further interviews will come," Lee said.

After Wilson became unwelcome at Capital Christian Center, according to Cole he inconvenienced church officials by making a stink in the media. The church's private school proposed to dis-enroll the child of Christina Silvas, now married to Wilson, because they objected to Silvas's occupation, which was professional stripper. Media coverage tended to portray the church as harshly Puritan in attitude.

"Steve Wilson was orchestrating the media blitz," Cole said. "Christina was not of a mind to do the media thing."

The Telegraph's Roger Phelps can be reached at rogerp@goldcountrymedia.com, or post a comment at folsomtelegraph.com