Community reacts to FBI raid of local church
The FBI raided Imperial Valley Ministries on Tuesday morning confiscating computers, cellphones and over $45,000 in cash raising concerns in the community.
El Centro Mayor Cheryl Viegas-Walker said, “Unfortunately, we have heard from time to time about certain groups that maybe not operating in the best interest of those whom they are purportedly saying that they’re helping.”
She questioned the work of this church.
“I really haven’t seen them the things to help people that so many of our other churches do,” Viegas-Walker said.
Jessica Solorio, founder of Spread The Love Charity, said they’ve had to help people leaving the church.
“The ones that came into our center told us that they were brought under false pretenses, they weren’t exactly sure what they were getting into. So, one way or another, they would leave the program, and were stuck in El Centro homeless,” Solorio said.
IVM Assistant Pastor Victor Gonzalez said their church helps people recover from drug addictions. They have five homes in the valley, plus they plant new churches in other areas. He said that’s what the money is for.
“That’s the way we provide for the recovery homes, to pay for the cars, to pay for the bills,” Gonzalez said.
The church is not a registered non-profit organization and that raises a red flag for some people.
Retired CPA Don Scoville said, “It would raise suspicion. If I was a member of the church and I found out about that I would be very concerned that the church is not really trying to follow good procedures as far as taking care of the money that I’ve donated to them,” Scoville said.
He said it might be just bad management or something else.
“[as a non-profit] They don’t have to pay taxes on their charitable receipts but they are required to disclose what they have received and sometimes what they ‘ve done with the money and parts of this tax return are available to the public,” Scoville said.
We reached out to FBI San Diego Headquarters, which is handling the investigation, but they said they have no comment at this time.
