A Jacksonville minister has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after two of his congregants said he told them how to bilk pandemic-era government aid programs.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Barksdale asked Marcus Eichelberger, who answered “yes, your honor.”
Eichelberger, 47, could be sentenced to up to 20 years behind bars for each of two counts of devising and aiding and abetting fraud through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.
Eichelberger’s Facebook page lists him holding longtime pastor and minister roles at Cathedral of Deliverance off Lem Turner Road. A July posting on the church’s Instagram account identified Eichelberger as pastor.
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Eichelberger declined to talk to a reporter after Tuesday, Aug. 18, plea hearing.
Prosecutors didn’t identify Eichelberger’s church in court filings but said he convinced a woman who attended services there to apply for about $50,000 in PPP loans ― created to help business owners struggling financially during a recession the pandemic triggered ― even though she was a federal employee and didn’t have a business or payroll to meet.
The churchgoer, Talia McIntyre, pleaded guilty to the same fraud charges in February. Her sentencing was delayed until Eichelberger’s case was resolved.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelli Swaney told Barksdale that McIntyre posed as an independent contractor for a non-existent catering business to get the loan and ended up sending $19,000 from the loan to Eichelberger ― $5,000 as a “processing and documentation fee” and the rest in two $7,000 transfers.
Eichelberger worked on the PPP application in 2021 and talked McIntyre through the process of applying for loan forgiveness in 2022, Swaney told Barksdale.
A plea deal that Eichelberger signed dropped two other fraud counts that involved another churchgoer, Justin Burns, who pleaded guilty in July to getting nearly $130,000 from SBA by submitting false information through its Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
Eichelberger got $31,000 from Burns, Swaney told the judge.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville pastor who recruited churchgoers guilty in COVID loan scam
