‘Magic mushroom’ church shaman accused of stealing $8 million in fraud scheme, feds say

The founder of a psychedelics-based church is accused of running a fake “magic mushroom” company and has been charged in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme, federal officials said.

Bobby Shumake Japhia, also known as Shaman Bobby Shu, Robert Samuel Shumake Jr. and Robert Japhia, is charged with securities fraud and obstruction, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Oct. 9.

Julius Jenge, a Virginia man who was the CEO of the company — at least on paper — also faces a charge of securities fraud and was arrested in August as he was attempting to board a flight to Tanzania, federal officials said.

Shumake doesn’t have an attorney listed yet in federal court records. Jenge’s attorney declined to comment to McClatchy News.

Shumake and Jenge are accused of operating a scheme to artificially inflate the price of stocks of their shrooms company, Minerco, then dump them, which led to investors losing nearly $8 million, SEC investigators said.

The scheme

To investors of the company, Shumake didn’t exist. To Soul Tribes International Ministries, he was known as Shaman Shu or Dr. Shu.

Shumake founded the Detroit church, which promoted the use of psychoactive plants, such as psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca, for spiritual purposes and healing, according to the ministry’s website.

In 2019, Shumake and Jenge took over defunct penny stocks company Minerco, with Jenge serving as the public-facing CEO and Shumake handling operations behind the scenes, according to an indictment in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Shumake had prior criminal convictions that news outlets had reported, which would have made it harder to attract investors to this new venture, officials said.

In 2020, Shumake secretly acquired 1 billion shares in the company but placed them in the name of his romantic partner in Virginia, even though he controlled the shares, investigators said.

Shumake then worked with Jenge and other accused co-conspirators to issue positive news releases about the “first publicly traded company focused on the research, production and distribution of psilocybin mushrooms,” according to the SEC. Another release falsely said Minerco was valued at $1 billion, investigators said.

Shumake and others also posted on investor message boards about Minerco, ultimately causing the stock price to increase, officials said.

Then from February to May 2021, Shumake and his accused co-conspirators sold 928 million of his 1 billion shares of stock for a total of $8.4 million, investigators said.

But the sales raised suspicions with the SEC, which paused trading in May 2021.

SEC investigation

With the scheme executed, Minerco stopped issuing news releases or financial reports, as the SEC began investigating, according to the indictment.

In October 2021, the SEC subpoenaed Jenge for documents related to the company. Shumake deleted records and looked up “how far back can you subpoena text messages,” investigators said.

Jenge was arrested Aug. 22, while Shumake was indicted Oct. 8, federal officials said.

As for Shumake’s church, in October 2023, a Detroit City Council member celebrated the closure of the church building the group operated out of, calling it a “dispensary.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 4:17 PM with the headline "‘Magic mushroom’ church shaman accused of stealing $8 million in fraud scheme, feds say."