Plea deal: KOJC also involved in visa fraud

Aside from facilitating sham marriages, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ also implemented a visa fraud scheme in the United States, where dozens of KOJC members were directed to apply for student visas to extend their stay.

- By JANVIC MATEO

The STAR obtained a copy of the plea agreement of the US Attorney's Office with Amanda Estopare, a KOJC administrator who was in charge of tracking and reporting the money raised in the US to KOJC officials in the Philippines.

In the agreement, which Estopare signed on Oct. 24, the KOJC officer admitted to being part of a conspiracy "to have certain KOJC workers, who were previously recruited as KOJC members from the Philippines, admitted into the United States by obtaining United States non-immigrant visas under false pretenses."

Her plea agreement specifically detailed how, from 2015 to 2020, they instructed KOJC workers to tell US immigration officers that they were traveling to the US to perform in church-related concerts, when in fact their primary purpose was to solicit donations.

"Defendant and her co-conspirators would seek to maintain United States immigration status for KOJC workers who proved capable of meeting the KOJC's cash solicitation quotas by obtaining student visas for such KOJC workers, for the purpose of evading the immigration laws," read the 17-page plea agreement.