Ex-County Businessman Cited in Scam to Bilk Congregation

A former Orange County businessman and missionary suspected of bilking members of an Arkansas church out of $1.8 million after preaching to them has been indicted by a grand jury in Little Rock, Ark., authorities said Tuesday.

The indictment of Abraham R. Boldt, 57, of Walnut on charges of defrauding investors comes nearly two years after authorities began investigating him in connection with a 1984 appearance at the New Covenant Community Church in Little Rock.

Boldt allegedly solicited investments from church members by promising them annual returns of up to 36%. Boldt allegedly said the money would be invested in a Marshall Islands bank he owned. Investigators said the bank had no assets.

Federal authorities have previously accused Boldt of being a key accomplice in an investment scam operated by Comstock Financial Services, a defunct Universal City investment company that investigators allege bilked more than 500 investors out of up to $5 million. The company’s former chairman, Roy L. Comstock, 47, was sentenced in August to four years in state prison for violating corporate securities laws.

Boldt, who once operated out of an office in Orange, was indicted in January in Brownwood, Tex., for allegedly defrauding investors there, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Timothy J. Browne said Boldt was arrested last year in Los Angeles on those charges. Browne and other authorities familiar with the case said they do not know Boldt’s current whereabouts or if he was ever extradited to Texas.