Virginia pastor pitching an entertainment venue scammed NC church out of $370K, feds say
Last month, Michael Baldwin used his Facebook page to message the devil.
“We are not ignorant of your devices,” Baldwin wrote on Sept. 30. “Try as you may, @Satan, God wins.”
On Wednesday, Baldwin learned something about losing when the Virginia pastor and would-be developer was indicted by a federal grand jury in Charlotte.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Baldwin swindled a North Carolina church and its pastor out of more than $370,000 — ostensibly to help him build “Miracle Mansion,” a high-end, family-entertainment venue with a “Biblical worldview” near the nation’s capital that never got off the ground.
Instead, according to the indictment, Baldwin used large chunks of the money he raised in Charlotte and around the country to pay for travel and restaurant meals, credit cards and other personal expenses.
The 52-year-old resident of Alexandria, Va., stands indicted on charges of securities fraud and wire fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum combined sentence of 40 years in prison and more than $5 million in fines, though his expected punishment almost certainly would be far less severe.
Baldwin did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. His federal court file did not list a defense attorney as of Thursday morning.
The church and minister Baldwin is accused of defrauding are not named in the indictment. However, The Charlotte Observer has learned that the victim congregation is Harbor Baptist Church on Old Concord Road, which bills itself as “the friendliest church in Charlotte” and where Baldwin made multiple appearances between 2016 and 2019.
Baldwin’s personal Facebook page also includes several posts about Harbor Baptist and its pastor, the Rev. Ken Simmons. In several posts, Baldwin describes Simmons as a close friend.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Simmons declined to say whether he and his congregants had invested in Miracle Mansion.
“I’d rather not comment. Churches should not be involved in lawsuits,” Simmons said. “... It’s disturbing to me this entire process.”
Wednesday night, not long after talking with an Observer reporter, Simmons shared a meme on his personal Facebook page:
“Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.”
According to the indictment, Baldwin began marketing Miracle Mansion in 2009 as a “one-of-a-kind entertainment complex that (would) reshape the face of family entertainment in the Washington Metropolitan region.”
He falsely claimed the project had been endorsed by the Kennedy Center and top executives with Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A, according to prosecutors. He posted architectural renderings of the future venue that resembled a French estate overlooking the Rappahannock River.
Baldwin, according to prosecutors, never built a thing — besides an effective sales pitch. In all, he fraudulently obtained more than $740,000 from victims across the country, including Virginia, Arkansas, Florida and Georgia, the indictment claims.
Marketing pitch in Charlotte
Baldwin began making financial inroads with the Charlotte pastor and his followers in 2015, less than a year after Simmons took over as senior pastor at Harbor Baptist.
That September, according to the indictment, the Charlotte pastor took a $60,000 advance from his church retirement benefits to invest in Miracle Mansion. Baldwin deposited the check in a private account, the indictment shows.
That October, the church cut a second check after the pastor persuaded it to make a $10,000 investment in Miracle Mansion in behalf of some of its employees. It, too, went into Baldwin’s personal account, not Miracle Mansion’s, the indictment says.
In January 2016, according to the indictment, Baldwin made a virtual pitch to the entire congregation. That February, the church wired $302,000 directly to the Miracle Mansion account.
Instead of using the money for land, zoning and other development costs, Baldwin spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his personal lifestyle, prosecutors claim. He spent an additional $150,000 to pay the salaries of other employees of Miracle Mansion. He spent even more for what the indictment describes as “Ponzi type payments” to earlier investor victims to cover the fraud.
A March 2011 post on the Miracle Mansion website promised a groundbreaking in late 2012. “Keep praying, keep investing and keep believing!” it urged.
Seven years later, the indictment claims, Baldwin again appeared at a meeting of the congregation at the Charlotte church to assure them that their investments were safe.
He’s scheduled to be back in Charlotte for his initial court appearance on Nov. 22. At that time, he’ll appear before an audience of one: His judge.
News editor Rogelio Aranda contributed.
This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Virginia pastor pitching an entertainment venue scammed NC church out of $370K, feds say."
