According to the Houston Press, three heads of a local religious organization, Fishers of Men, have been indicted on fraud charges. The details are a little sketchy, (and the USAO here in town hasn’t put the announcement on its press releases page), but it appears that the heads of the ministry allegedly sought student loans on behalf of its members, and the money went instead to building the church. There also seems to be, allegedly, some FEMA fraud in there.
The article states that the individuals face a ton of time because there are a number of charges, and since fraud charges typically carry up to 20 years of imprisonment (depending on the variety), yeah, that’s technically true. If you’re indicted on 50 mail fraud counts, yes, it’s technically true that you face up to 1000 years in prison. However, the likelihood of a district judge (who, it must be noted, is in complete control of sentencing, based on guidance from the sentencing guidelines) stacking the sentences is pretty low.
