Baptist Unit’s Retirement Plan Folds in Face of Suit

From the description in the brochure, the retirement plan offered by the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. sounded too good to be true.

Pay just $300 and, after reaching 70 years of age, receive $1,000 a month for the rest of your life, the brochure promised.

“Join Now! Don’t Delay! There Is Folly in Delay,” the brochure trumpeted.

2,500 Apparenty Agree

More than 2,500 people apparently agreed, sending the convention an estimated $985,000 in contributions.

But a lawsuit filed last week by federal securities regulators charges that the plan was unsound and that the method of marketing the plan violated federal securities laws.

The convention, the fourth largest religious denomination in the United States with a membership of about 6 million, immediately agreed to settle the lawsuit by pledging to refund all the money and to refrain from violating the securities laws in the future.

Under terms of the settlement, the group was not required to admit or deny the charges.

The National Baptist Convention, headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., is headed by the Rev. Theodore Jemison, pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.

Jemison and other church officials could not be reached for comment.

The lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, charged the convention with selling unregistered securities to church members in the form of certificates of participation in the retirement plan.

No Basis for Claims

The lawsuit also charged that there was no basis for the plan’s claimed benefits and that convention officials had been aware since at least last February that the plan was “actuarially unsound.”

The SEC said the group agreed to refund all the money contributed to the fund, plus interest, by the end of October.