SoCal Ponzi scheme pastor gets 12 years

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A California judge ordered a clergyman and a co-defendant to pay back $28 million to victims of an investment scam.

Pastor Robert Jennings, 59, Perris, Calif., was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the Ponzi scheme in which victims were corralled in conference calls that stressed that proposed deals were "God's Will."

The U.S. attorney's office said in a written statement that U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson called Jennings and his co-conspirators "economic predators" during their sentencing this week in Los Angeles.

Arthur Simburg, 64, Portland, Ore., was sentenced to nine years in prison while a third defendant, Henry Jones, was recently extradited from Hong Kong and is to be sentenced next year.

The Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise said Thursday that Jennings represented himself as the president of a coal company during regular conference calls with his "investors" and led them in group prayers.