Ruined by a crooked pastor, a sick ex-deacon is forced to struggle with assembly line work to repay his debts. “I have no choice to survive,” whispers Fortunato Orsini. Pastor Mwinda Lezoka deserves at least three years in prison for stealing more than $ 250,000 from his flock, according to the Crown.
” [Ses fidèles] had absolute and blind confidence in him. We cannot question Mr. Lezoka’s word, because it comes from the representative of God. It was practically a bond of submission ”, pleaded Wednesday the Crown attorney, Mr.e Jérôme Gagné, during the observations on the sentence of Mwinda Lezoka.
The man of God took advantage of the vulnerability of his faithful in the 2000s, when he led the Christian Community of Béthel, an evangelical church in the Ahuntsic district. Mwinda Lezoka used her “undeniable influence” over her flock to extract $ 268,000 from them, Judge Yves Paradis concluded last year by declaring him guilty.
The pastor had placed his Church in a financial pit by investing in ambitious real estate projects. He had thus encouraged two sisters to mortgage their house in order to lend $ 127,000 to the Church, in addition to extracting $ 50,000 from a faithful under pretext.
Church deacon Fortunato Orsini ended up on the streets after losing his house and $ 80,000. Mwinda Lezoka held a “hold” over him, he said. At the time, he slept on a chair in church and struggled to eat. “I had to survive instead of living,” he told the court.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The former deacon Fortunato Orsini, a victim of the pastor. Today, at 68, he has to work in a factory to “survive”.
Struggling with heart problems, the 68-year-old now has to work four days a week in a factory in a physically difficult job. “The consequences are immense” for Fortunato Orsini, argued the Crown.
By calling for three to four years’ imprisonment, the Crown insisted on Mwinda Lezoka’s “ascendancy” over her followers. “It was the pastor. It was the Church. For the good of the Church, it was necessary to do that ”, summarizes Mr.e Won. “There was immense pressure. Mr. Lezoka was squarely the representative of God ”, adds the prosecutor.
Mwinda Lezoka should also be ordered to reimburse the victims, according to the Crown. “We do not know where the money in question went”, noted Me Won. According to the defense, it is “derisory” to believe that the pastor will be able to repay the $ 268,000 in a few years.
A nine-month prison sentence is also more than enough, according to the defense. His lawyer Me Cynthia Lacombe described a man who “is trying to get back on his feet by going back to school” and will never be able to be a pastor again.
In addition, Mr. Lezoka’s fraud does not compare to a “big hidden and premeditated ploy”, insisted Mr.e Lacombe. In her eyes, Mwinda Lezoka was only “too optimistic” in her ability to repay loans to her followers. He has since gone bankrupt and has been placed on strict conditions of release, she added. “He was able to leave the province,” retorted Judge Paradis.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, PRESS ARCHIVES
Pastor Mwinda Lezoka in 2010
Until his conviction, Mwinda Lezoka continued to travel regularly to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to lead an important local church. However, this year, Mwinda Lezoka was fired from his post as secretary general of this church because of allegations of misuse of funds. He even got himself outright excommunicated.
In a long list of recriminations, the Church of Christ in the Congo accuses him in particular of having “created an unhealthy climate” within the Church, of having brought his fellow pastors to justice, of having plundered property and never to have presented a financial report, according to minutes consulted by Press.
The judge will render his decision next February.