Former pastor is charged in fraud

THOMSON --- An Aiken County man who once served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Warrenton has been indicted for the second time in less than a year on criminal charges.

A federal grand jury in Baltimore returned a multicount indictment this week against Otis Ray Hope and his younger brother, Richard Wayne Hope, according to prosecutors. The brothers, formerly of Hagerstown, Md., face fraud charges stemming from a $1.75 million loan they acquired to purchase a ministry in Hagerstown.

The 53-year-old Otis Ray Hope, who once served as pastor of 2,000-member Montrose Baptist in Rockville, Md., and his brother Richard, 51, of Denham, La., face a joint charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore. The brothers served as trustees of Shiloh Ministries of Hagerstown Inc., prosecutors said.

The two men also face charges of bank fraud, aiding and abetting and forfeiture.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, said the Hope brothers operated the Shiloh Conference and Retreat Center from August 2006 through March 2007. In September 2006, the brothers applied for and received a $1.75 million commercial loan on behalf of the Shiloh Co. The loan was used to refinance the mortgage and to release $108,835 being held in escrow by the previous lender for renovations after a fire in June 2006.

The indictment alleges that Otis and Richard Hope "falsely represented" to the lending institution that the Shiloh Conference and Retreat Center had reopened for business after the fire.

They had not been arrested as of Friday, according to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore. The brothers face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud and an additional five years in prison for conspiracy.

The indictment is Otis Ray Hope's second by a grand jury in Baltimore. Last year he was indicted on three counts of tax evasion and one count of subscribing to a false document, court records show.

He had been expected to stand trial on those charges last month, but the trial was postponed, Ms. Murphy said by telephone Friday. A new trial date has not been set.

At the time of that indictment, Mr. Hope was serving as pastor of First Baptist Church of Warrenton. He had been there only a few months when the indictments were returned. Mr. Hope later resigned from the church, and some members followed him to Thomson. He led that group's worship service only once.

At that time, Mr. Hope and his family lived in Columbia County and later moved to Aiken County.