The leader of a church based in the Philippines has been indicted on charges of sex trafficking involving young girls and women who were forcibly seeking financial donations in America under threats of “eternal damnation,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, known as “The Appointed Son of God,” was indicted on 41 counts Thursday along with five associates of his church titled Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name. Three Los Angeles-based church administrators were indicted last year.
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Three of the new defendants are accused of recruiting girls and women between the ages of 12 and 25 to work as personal assistants, or “pastorals,” for Quiboloy, 71, who had lavish homes in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Hawaii.
“The victims prepared Quiboloy’s meals, cleaned his residences, gave him massages and were required to have sex with Quiboloy in what the pastorals called night duty,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release read. “Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators told pastorals that performing night duty was God’s will and a privilege, as well as a necessary demonstration of the pastoral commitment to give her body to defendant Quiboloy as ‘The Appointed Son of God.’”
Any victim who hesitated was told “they had the devil in them and risked eternal damnation” and were threatened or physically abused, according to the release. Several victims succeeded in escaping and were vilified in sermons that Quiboloy broadcasted around the world.
The young women were brought to the United States from the Philippines on student visas and forced to spend long hours soliciting money for KOJC outside of businesses. Donors were told their money would help impoverished children, but in actuality, it funded the lavish lifestyle of KOJC leaders that included private jets.
Besides paying Quiboloy’s $13,830-a-month Los Angeles mortgage and his other homes, the donations were smuggled back to the Philippines, where a stadium called the KJC King Dome is under construction, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Quiboloy and two other defendants are not in custody and are believed to be in the Philippines. Three others will appear in Los Angeles court on Friday.
