New Zealand Adventist Convicted of Defrauding Pastor, Church Members
by Monte Sahlin
By Adventist Today News Team, November 20, 2013
Updated November 23
Friday (November 22) Damas Tutehau Flohr (age 69) pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud in Dunedin (New Zealand) District Court. He was immediately convicted and will be sentenced in December. Court proceedings commenced Monday against the Seventh-day Adventist Church member who conned members of the Dunedin Adventist congregation out of nearly $850,000 (New Zealand currency worth about $705,000 in the United States at current exchange rates). Flohr “persuaded the pastor and his wife, two other couples and four individuals to advance him $853,000 when he was having financial difficulties,” according to The New Zealand Herald.
On Tuesday the Otago Daily Times reported that Flohr “denies dishonestly causing losses of $198,692.98 to Audrey and Edward Hagan, between April and September 2009; $305,709.92 to Evelyn Wordsworth, between September 2008 and September 2009; $246,519.31 to Melvyn and Lynette Trevena, between December 2008 and December 2009; $59,000 to Neeltjie Gaudelius between December 2008 and July 2009; $2500 to Janice McCraw in June 2009; $3800 to Surrey and Diane Watts, in March 2009; and $36,993.15 to Kathleen Bowman between December 2008 and February 2009.”
Flohr approached each of the donors separately, telling them “he had $30 million [US] due from an oil contract in Nigeria, money available in the United States of America and the United Kingdom and property interests in Tahiti that he could sell to cover the funds if necessary,” said The New Zealand Herald. A government analyst told the court the claims were “obviously scams” or had “all the hallmarks of a scam.”
The trial is taking place in the Dunedin District Court. Melvyn Trevena was the Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Dunedin from 2002 to 2009. Trevena says Flohr contacted him in 2007, requesting financial help. Because of their long-term friendship dating back to the 1960s at Longburn Adventist College, Trevena originally gave Flohr $4,000, but after additional requests by Flohr, Trevena gave him a total of $246,519.31.
Evelyn Wordsworth, who has known Flohr since college in the 1960s, became suspicious after giving Flohr more than $305,000. When Wordsworth began investigating Flohr's purported business ventures, she discovered the false information Flohr had used to solicit funds.
Wordsworth and others confronted Flohr, but he claimed he did not have their money. Flohr explained that an ambassador who had attempted to bring approximately one million dollars to New Zealand—money ostensibly for them—had not been allowed to enter the country.
During the second day of the trial on Tuesday, the Otago Daily Times reported that retired pastor Trevena “denied encouraging members of his congregation to lend money” to Flohr. Trevena also denied partnering with Flohr in the deceptions, though Flohr and his wife did live with Melvyn and Lynette Trevena at one point. “To a suggestion that, by early 2009, his financial affairs and Flohr's were interlinked, Mr Trevena said he was certainly not part of the accused's business,” reported the newspaper, though Trevena did admit to having a joint account with Flohr that he had not revealed to police.
Trevena also had contacted a professor in the United States about using his U.S. bank account for receiving a portion of the funds. Rather than being evidence of a partnership, Trevena claimed he simply had been naïve in his efforts to reclaim his loaned funds.
Adventist Today will update this story when more information becomes available. The trial could last up to three weeks.
And Trevena also went to the airport with his good friend to meet a courier who was going to deliver a big payment. Who didn't show.
A fool and his money are easily parted.
Also relevant is to understand the size of the adventist church in Dunedin. In 2006 there were reportedly 66 members. I do not know how many were in attendance, but I would hazard not many. Out of this group 4 couples and 4 individuals were embroiled in this money making scam. All of them naive.
it would have been interesting to know the content of subsequent business meetings.
Dunedin is a city of staunch Scottish ancestry. Few of them are prepared to entertain Adventism.
When will people learn that anything connected with finances in Nigeria is a scam. I have seen too many people bilked of their life's savings. When the pastor and other members heard that Nigeria was involved, they should have sat down, put their sneakers on and ran away at full tilt.
Greed and covetousness is at the heart of such scams. It takes two to play at this "game" and both are greedy. These scames flourish in churches and the con men know that church people are the most vulnerable and yes, greedy.
With all the warnings of "worldliness" that our leaders have been preaching, perhaps there needs to be more attention to the 10th commandment which is more frequently violated and less preached.
I understand that one of those ripped of had worked in the conference treasury.
Where and how did they have control of so much money? Where does a pastor find a quarter of a million dollars? This is really worth a very long and thorough investigation.
Who knows. The explanation could be as simple as owning a house and subsequently selling it, while living in a rental, or receiving an inheritance. The amount is not huge if one has liquidated some assets. Mighty difficult to replace, however, if one is retired.
Pastors are not usually able to purchase a house for cash ouright and must take a mortage. When the home is sold, as you suggest, the entire price of the house is by no means his, as this implies. If a pastor has such assets, it is most unusual. I will wait for explanations, although I doubt if we will ever know the whole story. There are people who have more money that good sense; sad to find it in a pastor, but they are not given business courses along with theology, ordinarily.
The pastor is now retired. And in this part of the world, most pastors can retire with a house, even if it is a humble one. With no mortgage. And at a younger age one may have come into some money. Is there anything wrong with that.
what I find more interesting is that large sums could be rustled up for a financial opportunity. Obviously these sums are not being donated the church. Methinks that they would rather use their own skill to lose it, than let the church lose it for them.
Elaine,
Here in Oz, and I think in NZ, I think it is more common that Pastors have their own home than not. Some more than one!
They tend to buy a house at each location. Some sell to buy, but others add to their collection. I know of at least two that have a string of houses across each place they have worked. One of those has several places in NZ and into OZ.
While I'm on correcting perspectives:) Re business courses. While not a major subject, we were given a reasonable overview of business and finances while doing Th. (More than some of us thought we needed!)
Ummm, did not EG White say that business men in the church should handle business while the pastors could be free to concentrate on spiritual matters???? When this has been read to church leaders in the past, the reaction has been to verbally beat those sharing such information, and even to theaten them with excommunication if they persisted in pushing this. In the mean time I remember all of the times scams using church money have occurred, run by ministers like the Davenport scam. the problem is, the church is full of corruption and fraud. Just like in the world today, every man for himself, plunder whatever booty is available now while its there, arrrrhhhhhh!
I have several books written about large sums of money extorted or lost to fraudulent investments among church leaders: conference presidents, clergy and wealthy members who were targeted. Many were punished for being "whistle-blowers" and few were charged but merely sent to "Siberia" (a.k.a. far away from where information might follow).
Correction – Davenport was a doctor, not a minister. Not to ignore the fact that many ministers and conference administrators were taken-in by Davenport. They lost their own money and also the church's money.
Chris,
Of course, I wasn't suggesting that the pastor's indiscretion(?) with investments was necessarily caused by his lack of knowledge, it is because it is often church "people" who are more reported than others who seem to be taken in by such investment frauds based on "trust."
What I have just been surprised to discover is that the sister of the minister continued to advance money, a further $80000, after being advised by the Mellon Bnak that it was a fraud. Has anyone done a study comparing adventist gullibility to the normal population.
It is the "affinity" that makes successful scams. The closeness of the people involved whether from church, club, or close friends are the targets for scams. If they can tap into a leader of such a group, they are much more likely to be successful. And who is more respected than a man of the cloth?