Crazy returns

Charity: Alleged fraud brings down one church and may spread to others | Warren Cole Smith and Rusty Leonard

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David Talbot seemed like a trustworthy Christian businessman to the members of New Horizon Fellowship, a new church starting up in Wyckoff, N.J. He "talked the talk" of an evangelical Christian, according to Bill Werner, one of the elders at New Horizon.

But according to Werner, and now according to the attorney general of the state of New Jersey, he didn't "walk the walk." That is, if you don't count a "perp walk": New Jersey has sued Talbot because he "operated a fraud" by selling over $500,000 in unregistered securities "which promised high yield returns."

The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of Bergen County on Aug. 8, further alleges that Talbot and two co-defendants "appealed to investors' religious beliefs because some investors were told a percentage of the profits were going to charitable purposes, including to purchase a church."