Lawsuit Filed in Los Angeles, California, Alleging Sean Feucht Misused $250,000 Dismissed for Lack of Evidence

A lawsuit accusing worship leader Christopher John “Sean” Feucht of misusing $250,000 has been dismissed for lack of evidence, a federal court ruled last week. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter also told California businessman Steve Bray that he may refile his complaint with additional information supporting his allegations.

Carter wrote that an amended complaint would need to show that “funds provided by Plaintiff to the Defendants are the same funds diverted … toward alleged ‘fraudulent conduct.'” According to the court, it is not enough for Bray to allege that Feucht took money for his 2023 tour and spent money on real estate around the same time. The court said it needs allegations that include “times, dates, places” and specific dollar amounts. An amended complaint would also need concrete evidence that Feucht misled Bray. The court said the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles in March, does not provide facts that, if proven, would show Feucht “made the representations without reasonable grounds for believing them to be true.”

Feucht celebrated the decision on social media on Monday, saying the ruling confirmed that he did nothing wrong. “Today is a day of VINDICATION,” he wrote. He claimed the judge was politically liberal and biased against him, but said the case was so weak that “a Clinton-appointed federal judge” had no choice but to dismiss it. Feucht, who rose to prominence by staging large, outdoor worship gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, described the lawsuit as the latest in a series of failed attacks on his worship ministry. He characterized the case as “lawfare,” which he defined as people misusing the legal system for harassment.

“They attacked us, slandered us, and spread allegations they couldn’t support in court,” Feucht wrote. “These accusations traveled around the world — amplified by many of the same hostile voices that have attacked us since the COVID lockdowns.” He added, “Now let’s see who will report the DISMISSAL with the same energy they reported the accusations.”

Bray, who has also donated to Roys Report (RR), said he does not consider himself an enemy of public worship. He rejected the idea that he was trying to use the courts to harass Feucht. Bray told RR earlier this year that he gave $250,000 to Feucht because he believed in what Feucht was doing. He later had concerns about whether Feucht was really doing what he had promised, and he would need the specific, documented facts the court has asked for to pursue that matter further (Luke 12:48).

Separately, nine people who worked with Feucht signed a public statement accusing him of financial misconduct, including embezzlement and wire fraud. They said the worship leader has “a consistent pattern of misusing ministry resources” for his own personal benefit. The Associated Press found that Feucht’s ministry has spent millions on property, including a townhouse in Washington, D.C., 458 acres in Texas, and another 40 acres in Montana. The AP also reported that Feucht personally owns an estimated $4.5 million worth of property in California, Montana, and Pennsylvania.

Feucht’s ministries are registered with the IRS as associations of churches, according to the report, and they do not publicly disclose financial information. Bray said that when he had questions about ministry spending, he found Feucht would not disclose financial information privately either. “If you’re in ministry, you better be willing to, you know, pony up,” Bray said. “And when they don’t want to do it — huge red flags, sirens, yellow lights, red lights.”

The California businessman said he hoped the lawsuit would force Feucht to open his books. “When something doesn’t fit, you have to take it apart, which, you know, is the point of the lawsuit,” Bray told RR. “I basically said, ‘I think that the only way to get my money back is to file this lawsuit.'”

Source: Read the original report