In what has been described as the largest case of fraud targeting a religious group, the former top executive and legal counsel for the Baptist Foundation of Arizona were convicted on multiple fraud-related counts July 24.
A Maricopa County, Ariz., Superior Court jury convicted former foundation President William Crotts and Thomas Grabinski, the group's former top lawyer, each on three counts of defrauding investors and one count of knowingly operating an illegal operation. Jurors reportedly determined that Crotts and Grabinski did not personally gain financially from the scheme.
Because the convictions require mandatory jail time, according to the Arizona Republic, the two were immediately handcuffed and taken into custody. They will be sentenced in September.
The foundation, controlled by the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention, declared bankruptcy in 1999. About 11,000 investors — many of them elderly members of Baptist churches in Arizona and elsewhere — lost more than $550 million.
Associated Baptist Press