Phoenix Pastor Teodoro M. Medellin was ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution and a $10,000 administrative penalty by the Arizona Corporation Commission for fraudulently selling promissory notes to investors. Pastor Medellin’s victims were mostly from Hispanic Christian communities.
Pastor Medellin convinced many of his fellow pastors at fellowship meetings to invest after touting the significant money he had made from investing in the promissory notes issued by Verdugo Enterprises, LLC, a company in the business of purchasing home decor products to fulfill online orders, the Commission found.
The Commission found that Medellin failed to inform investors about the company’s unwritten policy to limit payouts to $6,000 every two weeks, which is contrary to the explicit terms of the promissory notes.
The Commission also found Medellin failed to inform relevant investors that a portion of their money would pay the sales commissions that he and others received.
Medellin was not registered to sell securities in Arizona.