Federal authorities arrested an Orange County man Friday on a charge of operating a $25.7-million investment scam, and filed civil fraud accusations against him and a minister who was said to have recruited Christian investors around the nation.

FBI agents arrested Jon G. Ervin, 61, at his home in Mission Viejo. He appeared later in federal court, where he was ordered held on $1-million bond.

In a parallel civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission froze the assets of Ervin, his Laguna Hills-based Safevest, and the Rev. John V. Slye, a pastor at Grace Community Church in Arlington, Va.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Fraud charges: In an article in the Business section on Saturday about an alleged $25.7-million investment scam, The Times reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission had sued the Rev. John V. Slye of Grace Community Church in Arlington, Va. The actual defendant in the SEC complaint is the father of the Grace Community pastor, who is also named John V. Slye and is also a minister. —

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Slye did not respond to phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Ervin was represented at his bail appearance by Deputy Federal Public Defender Leon L. Peterson, who declined to comment.

The attorney for Ervin and Safevest in the SEC case, Stanley C. Morris of Santa Monica, did not respond to a phone call and e-mail.

The SEC said that beginning in May 2007, Ervin and Slye raised funds from more than 500 investors, who were told their money would be used to trade commodities and would generate typical daily profits of 1.5% to 2%.

But no commodities were traded, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said, and the defendants and their families allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of investors' dollars on themselves.

In a criminal complaint detailing some of the alleged misuses of investor funds, FBI Special Agent William Bondurant said $1 million was wired to Georgia as an investment in an acquisition of a golf facility in Evans, Ga.

Karen Matteson, senior trial counsel for the SEC's Los Angeles office, said more than $18 million was returned to investors in "Ponzi-like" payments -- money gained from new investors paid to those who had come aboard earlier to make them believe that the alleged scheme was legitimate.

Most of the investors were approached because they were Christians, and several told the SEC they had put their trust in the enterprise because Slye is a pastor, Matteson said.

scott.reckard@latimes.com