ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 3 -- A Tampa, Fla.-based TV preacher and revival leader remained free on $12,500 bond Thursday after his arrest on two counts of grand theft. The Rev. Leroy Jenkins, his son David, and six other people were accused of keeping about $1 million that was intended for Florida senior citizens. Rev. Jenkins, 59, pastor of the Healing Hill Cathedral in Delaware, Ohio, was arrested in Orlando where he was staging a week-long revival. Authorities charged his son, David Leroy Jenkins, 30, was the mastermind behind the scam in which the group was supposed to sell items for clients, but kept all the profits instead of just the fee for which it contracted. David Jenkins was indicted on charges of racketeering, fraud, burglary and 33 counts of grand theft. The indictment charged Jenkins received Oriental furniture worth thousands of dollars from his son in 1993 through his Tampa company, Estate Liquidators. Authorities said victims of the scam numbered in the hundreds, all from the Tampa Bay area. Officials said Jenkins was aware his son, a partner in Estate Liquidators, had fraudulently procured the furniture from elderly clients after paying them nothing, or only a fraction of what they had agreed upon. Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents began investigating Jenkins and his son after learning about the allegations on a television news report. FDLE investigator Phil Ramer said the eight suspects charged in the case had formed an organized ring with the primary intent of victimizing people.
Jenkins said he is innocent, adding he had been investigated and cleared on similar charges before. The elder Jenkins spent four years in a South Carolina prison after being convicted in 1979 of conspiracy to commit arson and assault. His son was convicted in 1988 of being involved in a similar scheme and was released from a Florida jail in 1991.