Ventura Minister Gets 10 Years in Investment Scam

Robert Brancato, a part-time minister convicted of stealing $1.4 million from his followers and other clients, has received the maximum 10-year sentence, but one of his victims said Saturday it should have been longer.

“I think he should be kept out of circulation longer than that,” said Esther Livesay of Oak View, who with her husband, Ben, lost more than $30,000 that they invested with Brancato.

“It’s not that I’m vindictive,” Livesay said. “It’s water over the dam for me. But there are other Christians out there just as trusting as we were. . . . I feel he’ll be right back doing the same thing, only he’ll be smarter at it.”

Brancato, 55, of Ventura, was sentenced Friday in Ventura County Superior Court on 23 counts of grand theft. He will be eligible for parole after five years.

His attorney, George Dyer, told Judge Kenneth Yegan that Brancato was simply a bad businessman. He asked for probation so Brancato could work to pay back the money lost by investors, but Yegan rejected the request.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Geb said Brancato used his status as a part-time Church of Christ minister to entice about 30 church members and others to invest $1.4 million with him between 1979 and 1988. Instead of investing the money, however, Brancato used about a quarter of it to run an office, a quarter to make interest payments to investors and the rest to buy a ranch and pay for his children’s college education.

“It was a classic pyramid scheme,” Geb said in an interview Saturday. “He used new investors to give old investors some payoff. Not a penny went into investments.”

Geb said Brancato’s offer of a 22% return on investment “caused a frenzy” among investors, many of whom learned of Brancato’s company, National Preferred Business Services, when he preached at their churches in Ventura County.

Livesay said she and her husband met Brancato in 1982 when he joined the Church of Christ they attend in Meiners Oaks. “We were great friends,” she said. “We went on picnics, had lunches, went to Bible studies.”

She said they invested savings of more than $30,000 with Brancato in 1983 after learning that other church members, including her father, had entrusted him with money. Under a contract they signed, the interest was to be rolled over until 1987, when her husband retired and they would begin drawing periodic interest checks, Livesay said.

When they wanted to start drawing on their investment, “we got the big stall,” she said. “He’d get mad and fuss.”

Geb said investors apparently have no chance of getting any money back. “He pretty much spent it all,” he said.

He said Brancato had a lawsuit pending against a government agency over a land deal and apparently hoped to be able to pay back investors with the proceeds of the suit.

A federal court, however, dismissed the suit, Geb said. He did not have details.

Geb, who has handled several pyramid cases, said the perpetrators “are not completely irrational.”

“Nobody does it without a prayer,” he said. “They think their ship is coming in in some other area, so to get themselves by, they do this other thing. But their ship never comes in.”

Livesay said she was not surprised that about 25 supporters of Brancato appeared in court Friday on his behalf. “I can’t blame these people. They don’t know the man. He’s an actor. And very few people are as excellent in their Bible knowledge as he is. He can quote Scriptures off the top of his head.

“This is what gets me. He should know better.”