Part 1: Jehovah's Witness elders sentenced to 15 years for $6 million theft
Part 2: Watchtower officials announce Disfellowshipping of elders

[Jehovah's Witness] Church elders sentenced to 15 years for $6 million theft

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

by The Associated Press

DEER LODGE (AP) - Two Jehovah's Witness church elders who fleeced a 100-year-old Deer Lodge woman out of her life savings and family ranch were sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison with 10 suspended.

District Judge Ted Mizner sentenced Darryl Willis, 64, of Helena, and Dale Erickson, 54, of Missoula, in what prosecutors called the biggest theft case in Montana history.

The men - who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, theft and securities fraud - were ordered to pay $6.5 million in restitution.

The thefts included taking a nearly $400,000 brokerage fee for illegally and secretly selling Una Anderson's $5.3 million Powell County ranch for $4 million.

More than $2 million went to finance a failed effort to establish Montana's first foreign capital depository, which would offer a place for the super-rich to stash their money similar to Swiss-style or offshore banks.

Mizner said the sentence represents a "small measure of justice" for Anderson, whose life savings and 6,400-acre family ranch were lost in a befriend-and-betray scheme that played out from 1995 to 2002.

The men used a complex system of trusts and interlocking companies to steal Anderson's money while living in expensive homes, driving luxury cars and traveling extensively, court records said.

Anderson, who is now 101, said she is glad that justice was served, but is sad for the men who made poor decisions and ruined their lives.

"It's sad to think of those two young people," she said of Erickson and Willis. "My life has been good, but it's almost over. They had everything ahead of them."

During the sentencing hearing, family members and a social worker for Adult Protective Services, Janel Pliley, asked the court to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law _ which would have totaled 40 years.

Kelson Colbo, whose grandfather was Una Anderson's first cousin, said Erickson and Willis used Anderson's trust with the church as leverage to convince her to trust them with her finances.

The case was brought to the attention of authorities in September 2001 by members of Anderson's family and Pliley.

Source

[Watchtower officials announce Disfellowshipping of elders]

Church officials shun thieves

By Vera Haffey of The Montana Standard

DEER LODGE — Two former Jehovah's Witnesses church elders sentenced recently in what prosecutors bill as the largest theft case in Montana's
history were denounced by the church in a statement released by a national spokesperson Wednesday.

Speaking from the church's world headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., J. R. Brown confirmed that Darryl Willis, 64, Helena, and Dale Erickson, 54, Missoula, were "disfellowshipped" in the wake of their conviction for defrauding Una Anderson, a 101-year-old Deer Lodge woman, out of her life savings of $6.5 million.

"Disfellowshipped" individuals are not only expelled from the church, but are also ostracized by other church members, the spokesperson said.

Brown's press secretary deferred further questions to church elder Mike Murphy in Deer Lodge. Murphy said although neither of the white-

collar criminals belonged to the local congregation, they were introduced to Anderson — who was a church member for more than 50 years — by a mutual friend from the Deer Lodge group. That introduction led to an elaborate befriend-and-betray scheme spanning several years, court records show.

Aside from a $400,000 brokerage fee for illegally and secretly selling Una Anderson's $5.3 million Powell County ranch for $4 million, and more than

$2 million used to finance a failed effort to establish Montana's first foreign capital depository off-shore banking set up, numerous loans, large and small, were made to church members and relatives of Erickson and Willis, records show. Only a few were repaid.

Those records say Willis and Erickson convinced Anderson that entrusting to them the fortune she amassed during years of hard ranch work and frugal living would be "more in line with her spiritual beliefs."

As time went by, Anderson was influenced by other church members who became progressively more involved and controlling in her care and daily life, records show.

During a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Janel Pliley, an Adult Protective Services social worker, told the court that Anderson's finances, activities and associations were closely monitored by several church members who caused a division between Anderson and her family members.

"She was under watch 24 hours a day," Pliley told the court. "She was basically held prisoner in her own house. "

Pliley reported the case to Powell County authorities in September 2001 after family members noticed suspicious goings-on during visits to Anderson's home.

Murphy said Willis and Erickson's misuse of their positions of trust as elders does not reflect on or involve other church members. Members of the congregation who cared for Anderson did so with the best of intentions, and that a lack of communication between Anderson's family and the church led to a lack of trust. He said the actions of Willis and Erickson breached the family's trust in the church in general.

Sarah Kelson, Anderson's niece who lives with and cares for her, sees things differently. She says church people literally ran family members off at Anderson's modest one-story home on the outskirts of town when they tried to visit.

"There certainly was a lack of trust," Kelson said Wednesday. "But there was no lack of communication. (Murphy) himself ordered me out of this house. He told me I should leave and the church would take care of everything."

Murphy explained that the church members support the sentencing of the two men, and that Jehovah's Witnesses "never shield anyone from prosecution."

"There is no justification for what those men did," Murphy said. "We feel horrible about what has happened to Una and we feel horrible about what has happened to her family. They lost their heritage as well as their money."

Murphy said members are also distraught over the loss of Anderson's companionship.

"She has very close friends in the Deer Lodge congregation who still consider her close friends," Murphy said. "Now they are not able to associate with her because of what these two men did."

Again, Kelson offers a different perspective. "I'm sure they are distraught," Kelson said Wednesday. "They were all sucking money off of her. The piggy bank closed."

Reporter Vera Haffey may be reached via e-mail at vhaffey@in-tch.com.

Source

Another Elders & Fraud story:
Jehovah's Witness Elder ordered to repay $4.7 million to fleeced flock A jehovah's Witnesss elder was ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $4.7 million in restitution to almost 50 victims of a Ponzi-like con game – many of them elderly members of his own congregation. (updated 03/18/2003)