IN RESPONSE TO INDICTMENT OF HOUSE OF PRAYER ON FRAUD & TAX CHARGES
SCAMMED VETERANS & THEIR ADVOCATES CELEBRATE LAW ENFORCEMENT WIN
BUT WARN HOUSE OF PRAYER CASE SHOWS FED GOV’T OVERSIGHT NEEDED
TO PREVENT OTHER VETS FROM BEING ROBBED OF GI BILL & HOME LOAN BENEFITS
BY FAKE HIGHER ED SCHOOLS
Last week, a federal court in Georgia—following an FBI operation dubbed ‘False Profit’—indicted eight leaders of the House of Prayer Christian Churches of America, including its founder, on fraud and tax charges for running a cult-like scheme that preyed on veterans and siphoned off millions in GI Bill benefits.
Veterans Education Success first exposed the House of Prayer Christian Bible colleges in 2019 for what they truly were: a cult-like operation that preyed on service members, lured them into the church, and siphoned off their GI Bill funds and VA home loans.
Veterans Education Success investigated and gathered victim and whistleblower testimonies and delivered the case to law enforcement. Then they pushed for accountability. The FBI raided the schools, and now the operators have been indicted on tax and fraud charges.
The message could not be clearer: if you scam veterans, you will face justice.
But these scams will continue if VA and Congress fail to act. The House of Prayer never should have been approved for the GI Bill in the first place, nor allowed to thrive unchecked for years, as Veterans Education Success documented in a report this year, based on a FOIA and state documents request. Moreover, clear conflicts of interest at VA and among its state agents allow these scams, and VA has only sought to circumvent the laws that prevent government conflicts of interest – as documented in a second report published this year.
Furthermore, enforcement is at risk. The Trump Administration’s work dismantling the Department of Education will result in lax oversight and enforcement of colleges, leaving American students more vulnerable than ever to predatory schools waiting to exploit them.
In addition, veterans defrauded by schools like House of Prayer never get their GI Bill back. Even if the government seizes assets, the veterans who earned those benefits never see a dime—and they never get a second chance at a good education.
That is why we are demanding urgent action:
- Strengthen the standards for GI Bill approval of schools to stop scams before they start.
- Restore GI Bill benefits to veterans who were cheated out of their futures.
Our servicemembers put everything on the line for this country. They deserve more than empty promises—they deserve ironclad protections for the benefits they’ve earned.
###
Veterans Education Success is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to work on a bipartisan basis to advance higher education success for veterans, service members, and military families and to protect the integrity and promise of the GI Bill and other federal postsecondary education programs. The organization offers free help, advice, and college and career counseling to veterans using the GI Bill and helps them participate in their democracy by engaging with policymakers. Veterans Education Success also provides non-partisan policy expertise to federal and state policymakers and conducts non-partisan research on issues of concern to student veterans. Additional information is available at vetsedsuccess.org.
Statement on House of Prayer Indictments