A Texas pastor has been indicted for allegedly stealing over $3.2 million from dozens of donors to church entities and using the funds for business and personal expenses.
Richard Reinaldo Garcia, 53, of Arlington, was indicted last month by a federal grand jury on two counts of wire fraud, one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Garcia’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 13 in federal court in Fort Worth. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud and conspiracy counts, as well as a mandatory, consecutive two-year sentence on the identity theft count. The identity theft charge stems from Garcia’s alleged use of another person’s name and address without authorization on business formation documents filed with the Texas Secretary of State.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas on Tuesday, from August 2021 through April 2025, Garcia and other individuals “allegedly made false material misstatements based, in part, on the promise of significant profits for his victims.”
“The misstatements, among other things, induced victims to enter into agreements and provide funds for ‘church flipping’ real estate improvement projects and ‘joint venture’ agreements to host Christian music concerts and other church programs,” the attorney’s office stated. “Garcia then allegedly used victim funds to pay for his own personal expenses and business operating expenses.”
Garcia allegedly controlled bank accounts in church-based names, like Ministerio Gracia, Iglesia Gracia de Texas, Gracia Church of Texas and Pesar de Todo, LLC.
He allegedly directed several victims to send funds to these accounts and to label the transfers as “donations” to Gracia Church, even though the money was actually funneled into the alleged fraud scheme.
More than 50 victims across the U.S. and abroad paid over $3.2 million to Garcia due to the scheme, with him allegedly using the money for personal use and business expenses.
One example described in the indictment is that Garcia allegedly raised money from multiple donors for a church mission trip to Africa, only for the money to go elsewhere.
“(Garcia) made fraudulent representations to solicit funds from victims, typically $2,000 per person, purportedly to pay for trips to Kenya, Africa where church programs related to the Relevant Entities would occur,” the indictment states in part.
“When in reality, Garcia then and there well knew that defendant Garcia would cancel and or never book trips to Africa and the solicited funds would be used to pay for unrelated expenses.”
“The defendant allegedly took advantage of his victims’ faith by promising significant profits through investment opportunities but instead used their funds to selfishly enrich himself at their expense,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. “We will not stand idly by while North Texans fall victim to these unscrupulous schemes, and my office will work hard to seek out and prosecute those that commit these types of crimes.”
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