The minister applied for and received a federal grant of $25,700 to benefit this charitable group. Lekevie Johnson preaches at Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Champaign, Illinois,įor seven years, starting in 2012, Johnson ran an Illinois nonprofit group called Life Line, promoted as a program to help low-income students. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers That Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture” by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. According to his online bio, he was ordained in 1999 and pastored a church in Mississippi from 2001 to 2009. Johnson was senior pastor of Mount Calvary, formerly Jericho Missionary Baptist Church, since 2009. According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, the minister was found guilty of defrauding multiple federal agencies for nearly a decade.Īccording to a local news report, Johnson said in court: “I have blamed no one but myself for my self-inflicted situation.” District Judge Michael Mihm sentenced Johnson to a 10-month prison term and ordered him to pay $59,358.90 in restitution. The charges included federal program misapplication, student loan misapplication, and making false statements in a bankruptcy petition.

Lekevie Johnson, 47, former pastor of Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Champaign, Illinois, pleaded guilty to multiple financial crimes at a December court hearing. The former pastor of an Illinois church has been sentenced to 10 months in prison, after pleading guilty to financial fraud and reportedly spending much of his ill-gotten gain on gambling.

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