Pa. man sentenced to prison for Ponzi scheme at church

Standing a few feet from the man who visited his church three years ago and lured him into a million-dollar Ponzi scheme, John Marino yesterday remembered sifting through bills after his son's leukemia diagnosis in June 2008.

"Dad, I'm sorry I got sick," the 16-year-old said. "I know you can't afford to pay my doctor's bills."

Marino, a teacher from Jackson, N.J., was one of at least 13 congregants duped into giving almost $1.2 million to Terence Mayfield, 47, of Phoenixville.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez sentenced Mayfield to eight years in federal prison - the maximum allowed under federal guidelines - followed by three years' probation. Mayfield pleaded guilty in April to fraud charges in connection with two phony real estate investment schemes.

In November 2006, a pastor at Church of Grace and Peace in Toms River invited Mayfield to speak about a program he called My Home Banc.

Posing as a financial adviser, Mayfield promised he would help audience members invest in real estate that would get them out of debt or build wealth. He began to hold meetings at the church and assembled parishioners into a team of "vision coaches" to recruit more investors.

He encouraged some members to join a "foreclosure bailout" program that claimed to benefit homeowners struggling to keep their properties. The program offered church members the opportunity to buy a house from an owner in danger of foreclosure, then lease it back to that owner.

After paying the investor and Mayfield fees and advance rent, homeowners were told they could buy the property back in two years.

In both cases, Mayfield said he would put the money he collected into escrow accounts. The account would be used to buy real estate in the first arrangement and facilitate the exchange of money in the second, he said.

In reality, U.S. Attorney Matthew Smith said, the escrow money was used to refund previous investors, pay expenses to continue the schemes, and support an upscale lifestyle that included a suburban home with a $3,000 monthly mortgage.

"Rather than praying with them, he preyed on them," Smith said. Smith said none of the vision coaches had been charged.

Peter "Andy" Weathers, 42, an accountant from Jackson, said he was too ashamed to reveal how much money he had put toward purchasing one home in Edinburg, Pa., and two in Georgia as part of the so-called bailout program.

Before addressing the judge yesterday, he turned to Mayfield and called him a "thief."

"You target the people who dedicate their lives to God," he said. "For that you have a lot to answer to."

The owners of the Edinburg home, Gary and Cary Johnson, also were at the sentencing. They wired $98,000 to Mayfield, thinking it would be placed in an escrow account.

After the money disappeared, they lost their home. Cary Johnson teared up as she talked about moving into their new residence with her 13-year-old son.

"He said, 'I want to go home,' " she recalled.

This was not Mayfield's first fraudulent venture. In 2005, he was sentenced to two years' probation for a Ponzi scheme in Philadelphia in which eight victims reported losing $198,000, Smith said.

In October, he was indicted on securities-fraud charges in Delaware, accused of taking money from two investors who had trusted him with a combined $225,000, state Deputy Attorney General Greg Strong said.

Strong said he would recommend Mayfield serve probation concurrent with the federal supervised release, but said the state would push for up to five years in prison if Mayfield violated that probation.

Yesterday, Mayfield and his wife pleaded for lenience. His lawyer, Kenneth Young, said Mayfield had been sexually molested as a child and grew up without positive role models.

"He found solace in the church, and he found power," Young said.

Mayfield choked out his plea between sobs, and said he had contemplated suicide while on bail but hadn't wanted his three children to come home and find his body.

"I hate myself every day," he said. A restitution hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2.

Key in Rodriguez's sentencing decision was the discovery by the prosecution that an Abington couple had filed an unrelated complaint in late April alleging Mayfield was involved in still another scheme against them even after he pleaded guilty in federal court.

"You aren't learning," Rodriguez said in giving the maximum penalty.

As for Marino, the 51-year-old has managed to pay only $12,000 in interest on the $60,000 he borrowed to invest with Mayfield.

More damaging than his financial "bondage," Marino said, is the loss of faith in humanity he suffered as a result of his misplaced trust.

"I cannot believe anything anybody tells me, from a store clerk to the president of the United States," he said.