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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – The pastor of a Palm Beach County church is refusing to return $ 1.7 million that, according to financial regulators, would belong to victims of a crime. $ 30 million Ponzi scheme.
The Palm Beach Post
reports
a federal judge froze temporarily the accounts of
Winners Church
, located at 365 Jog Rd. and pastors Fred and Whitney Shipman.
Church leaders are fighting for money to be returned to hundreds of people who have been lured into an investment scam in diamonds and bitcoins.
Bishop Fred Shipman told the judge Thursday that the return of money would have a serious "coaching effect".
The Securities and Exchange Commission's lawyer, Amie Berlin, does not claim that the church or pastors were involved in the scheme orchestrated by a former church director.
The judge gave both parties until June 3 to file documents explaining their positions.
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