Televangelist’s church being sued for $3.6M

Records say dispute involves defaulted loan network took.

Pentecostal CUYAHOGA FALLS — evangelist Ernest Angley’s Grace Cathedral church is being sued for more than $3 million on a defaulted loan taken by the church’s broadcasting network, according to court records.

The 39-page lawsuit filed Nov. 29 in Summit County Clerk of Courts by Beck Energy Corporation Inc. names Winston Broadcasting Network Inc. and Grace Cathedral Inc. as defendants. It seeks damages and a foreclosure on the Cuyahoga Falls property.

The suit says Beck, a Raveena-based oil and gas company, loaned $3.6 million to WBN in January 2013, which used the money to pay a PNC Bank mortgage. In addition to the loan from Beck Energy, WBN President Edwina Brown signed a promissory note to ensure the loan would be repaid. Angley signed a guarantee agreeing to pay the multimillion-dollar loan on behalf of WBN if they defaulted, the suit says.

The 96-year-old Angley, a native of North Carolina, settled in Akron in 1954 and in 1994 bought the round, 5,400-seat Cathedral of Tomorrow, formerly operated by televangelist Rex Humbard, in Cuyahoga Falls. The complex, at 2700 State Road, was rededicated as Grace Cathedral. Angley has churches in Springfield Township and Cuyahoga Falls and broadcasts sermons on WBNX television. The television station is housed at the cathedral.

The lawsuit says the loan was supposed to be paid from February 2013 to February 2016. A one-year verbal extension was granted to the WBN, but the loan remained unpaid, according to the lawsuit.

Beck sent a letter to WBN in April requesting repayment. Angley responded to the letter in July saying the matter was being handled, according to court documents.

“I have received your letter and I appreciate your confidence in me,” the letter said. “I didn’t intend for it to take this long and I will be able to pay the $3,600,000.00 in just a very short, short time.”

Beck never received a payment, the lawsuit says.

In September, Beck sent a two-page 10-day demand letter to WBN threatening legal action. Angley replied on behalf of the television station again and said he was preparing to make a payment in full. That didn’t happen.

Efforts to reach attorneys for Grace Cathedral Monday were unsuccessful.

Angley has dealt with legal matters in the past. He closed the Cathedral Buffet in April weeks after a federal judge ordered him to pay more than $388,000 in damages and back wages to employees who the U.S. Department of Labor found worked as unpaid volunteers.

The Labor Department filed suit against the then 95-year-old televangelist and the buffet in 2015 following an investigation spurred by an article in the Akron Beacon Journal. Its lawsuit said Angley and the buffet violated the Fair Labor Standards Act through its use of volunteers and did not document the volunteers’ work.

Angley maintains he and the buffet staff did nothing wrong and that the claims put forth by the government violate the First Amendment.

The Labor Department also cited Angley in 1999 for the same thing. The buffet paid $37,000 in back wages at the time and agreed to comply with labor laws going forward.