Bllind Faith

Bllind Faith

By FRANCIS X. GILPIN

Associate Editor

Who would ever suspect the Word of Truth Ministries of telling a lie? AmSouth Bank didn't.

AmSouth made three loans to the Fort Myers church for a total of $980,000 in 2003. An AmSouth vice president never thought anything was amiss, even after the church pastor told her that she needed to deal with a Tampa man about the loans.

Bishop Michael W. Lewis presented himself as the head of a diocese with church and educational facilities in Bradenton, Fort Myers, Ocala, Riverview, Tampa and Thonotosassa. But federal investigators and AmSouth officials now say Lewis was just intent on borrowing $10 million to finance a lifestyle that included a $450,000 house in the gated Arbor Greene subdivision of New Tampa.

Lewis and his cohorts already had $3.2 million of AmSouth's money by the time the bank found out he was a convicted felon. Upon closer inspection, his loan applications consisted largely of fraudulent paperwork from companies and people whose identities he had stolen.

"The borrowing entities whose identities were not stolen are essentially shell corporations where the loan liabilities were parked while the loan proceeds were being looted via the back door," stated Robert N. Shaw, a Clearwater-based AmSouth vice president for security, in an affidavit.

Only after a complaint to AmSouth did bank officers put Shaw on the case. At the time, approvals were pending for another $1 million in loans to the Lewis organization. Shaw, who was an FBI agent for almost 30 years, quickly established that AmSouth had been taken. All of the Lewis loans were called.

Lewis is awaiting a January sentencing after his guilty plea to federal charges of bank fraud and money laundering last spring. But records of his financial escapades raise questions about the diligence exercised by AmSouth and other banks that did business with Lewis.

David Webster, senior vice president for communications at AmSouth headquarters in Birmingham, Ala., pointed out that the bank did help federal authorities secure an indictment of Lewis. But Webster declined further comment, citing the Lewis sentencing in two months.

"The scheme was carefully conceived and skillfully carried out," Shaw says in his sworn statement.

Nevertheless, did AmSouth suspend judgment about Lewis because, as Shaw put it, he operated "beneath the veneer" of organized religion?

PowerPoint impresses

Lewis, who turns 44 this month, is a Tampa native whose two felony convictions for check and credit card fraud earned him eight months in state prison during the early 90s.

AmSouth says Lewis knows a thing or two about banks. He and his alleged accomplices made sure to borrow less than $1 million, lest their loans be transferred from the branch system to the supervision of "more sophisticated lending groups" at the bank, according to an AmSouth court filing.

Rick Swagler, an AmSouth spokesman at the bank's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters, was unavailable for comment. Another AmSouth executive didn't answer a request for comment.

Lewis set up dummy entities that provided bogus vendor invoices, payment confirmations, insurance certificates and other documents that convinced AmSouth to make the loans. Phony financial statements showed strong cash flows and church membership.

AmSouth points out in court records that Lewis and his representatives used PowerPoint presentations in their loan pitches to the bank. Yet, in retrospect, a little early checking behind the snazzy computer graphics might have saved AmSouth a lot of grief later.

A problem with one of the Word of Truth Ministries loans was the financial statements submitted to AmSouth. Eugene Porter, a brother-in-law of Lewis who claimed to be a certified public accountant, prepared the financials for the $220,000 loan in May 2003. But Porter's CPA license had been revoked, AmSouth now says.

An additional $200,000 line of credit was extended to the Word of Truth Ministries in July 2003, secured by church property in Fort Myers. By October, about $178,000 had been drawn down. Yet the Word of Truth Ministries already had sold the collateral to the diocese controlled by Lewis. AmSouth was never told and found out much later.

AmSouth sued the Word of Truth Ministries, among other entities affiliated with Lewis. The bank claims Word of Truth Pastor Harry L. James dropped the summons upon being served and fled. At the time, according to AmSouth, James faced two paternity suits in Lee County and there was a warrant out for his arrest. James has since moved to Georgia, where he leads another church.

In November 2003, AmSouth loaned another $240,000 so Christian Assemblies International Inc., a Bradenton not-for-profit then run by Lewis associate Sean R. White, could buy a Tampa property. Although AmSouth was told the property in the College Hill neighborhood would be used as a school, Lewis opened a check-cashing outlet on the premises instead.

Fire at the Fire House

Except for a slip-up, Lewis might still be borrowing from AmSouth.

In December 2003, AmSouth loaned almost $175,000 to the Fire House Christian Center for equipment. The Tampa church's pastor, Willie Mays Marshall, subsequently received a loan payment notice. But Marshall told AmSouth that his church didn't need the equipment.

The church had lost its sanctuary months earlier in a fire. Without insurance, the church was leasing space for religious services at a nearby hotel. Marshall told AmSouth that he knew nothing about the loan.

Lewis had forgotten to notify AmSouth that the Fire House Christian Center loan documents should be sent to him.

After Marshall's complaint was forwarded by AmSouth, federal investigators found five suspicious activity reports on Lewis in 2003. Banco Popular of North America, Bank of America, SunTrust Bank and Wachovia Bank reported possible check kiting, loan fraud and other maneuvers by Lewis and his associates, according to his plea agreement.

AmSouth's Shaw and federal marshals received court permission to confiscate a personal computer used by Lewis that indicated the bishop was contemplating an escape to Cuba, the Dominican Republic or other overseas destinations.

Since his plea deal, however, Lewis has been behind bars. Yet he hasn't been idle. Lewis has become a prolific jailhouse snitch.

In August, Douglas Molloy, an assistant U.S. attorney in Fort Myers, asked a judge to delay sentencing because of the "significant substantial assistance" that Lewis is providing to investigators.