Ex-bishop’s co-conspirator gets time served in church fraud scheme

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge sentenced a woman involved in a bishop’s schemes to defraud his church to time served on Tuesday, saying she showed “real remorse” for her crimes.

Shelia Quintana teared up as U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White announced he was not going to sentence her to one year of supervised release, the only contention between the government and Quintana’s attorney August Gugelmann.

Quintana pleaded guilty to four counts, including criminal conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and wire fraud and accepted a plea agreement contingent on her cooperation to discuss the crimes she and former African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church bishop Staccato Powell committed in 2018 and 2019.

Powell and Quintana fraudulently obtained mortgages from church properties in Vallejo, San Jose, Oakland, Palo Alto and Los Angeles without the congregation’s knowledge. Quintana executed loan documents to borrow money against the properties and use them as collateral.

“I am both ashamed and embarrassed to be in this situation,” she said. “To any I have hurt, you have my sincerest apologies.”

Gugelmann told the court Quintana did not want to question Powell’s authority as bishop, “someone she had an immense amount of respect for,” he said, and his “vision for the district and ambitious plan to enhance the church.”

He also said, for Quintana, it “wasn’t a quest for personal enrichment.”

In September, Powell, who devised the fraud, was sentenced to time served and home confinement, and in October, he was ordered to pay over $12 million in restitution to AME Zion.

“These were serious crimes,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Jay Paulson said. “But Ms. Quintana did come forward and did come clean.”

White, a George W. Bush appointee, said he did not want any sentencing disparity and did not want to punish Quintana more than Powell, especially because she came forward early during the investigation — “basically taking your medicine without knowing what could happen” — and her information likely compelled Powell to plead guilty.

“To take the suspense out of it, I’m not going to put you in jail,” he told Quintana.

White noted that if another case, one that did not involve senior leaders of a church, included a plan to take millions of dollars and church property, it would have most likely “required a significant period of incarceration.”

Quintana, a former Vallejo High School principal, was ordered to pay AME Zion $67,500 in restitution, the same total from three checks Powell gave her to cash as a stipend for her work. She is required to make $250 monthly payments.

Shortly after being elected bishop in 2016, Powell formed a business entity called Western Episcopal District Inc., of which he was the chief executive officer, and Quintana became its chief financial officer in 2017.

Powell then diverted some of the funds borrowed by WED Inc. for his personal benefit, including the purchase of property in North Carolina for two of his children and a $14,000 payment for mortgage debt that he owed on a residence in North Carolina.

According to Justice Department officials, WED Inc. listed 11 churches in California, Arizona and Colorado among its assets when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020, as well as a parsonage and Powell’s official residence. The petition stated that WED Inc.’s real property was worth over $26 million.

AME Zion Church traces its history to 1796 and has about 1.4 million members worldwide.