IV Ministries targeted by authorities
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L CENTRO — Churches and properties across the country that are affiliated with Imperial Valley Ministries were the target of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday.
Although reportedly no arrests were made, officials did seize about $45,000 in cash from the home of IV Ministries Pastor Victor Gonzalez, who said the money represented a months-long fundraising effort aimed at establishing a new church in Texas.
Locally, the church’s offices on Broadway and its men’s and women’s group homes were also subjected to FBI searches that reportedly resulted in the seizure of several electronic devices and financial records. “Right now everybody is trying to find out why,” Gonzalez said.
A FBI spokesperson declined to disclose the nature of the ongoing investigation, only stating that it was a “court-authorized law enforcement activity” that also included the assistance of law enforcement officials from various agencies. Gonzalez said he suspected the FBI action may have something to do with allegations that the church had held someone against their will in the past, an accusation that he denied. Gonzalez also sought to dispel widely circulated rumors that IVM’s group homes had been shuttered on Tuesday and its residents displaced as a result of the enforcement action.
“We’re not closing down,” he said. “Imperial Valley Ministries is going to keep on going.”
IV Ministries is a faith-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to restore the lives and spirituality of individuals dealing with substance abuse. It has more than a dozen affiliates, known as restoration churches, throughout the country and in Mexico. Those stateside restoration churches were also targeted on Tuesday by federal investigators, Gonzalez said.
Its clients are provided room and board as part of a 12- or 18-month recovery program, but are also allowed to leave voluntarily at any time they choose to do so, Gonzalez said.
While acknowledging that the group homes enforce strict rules for its guests, Gonzalez also denied that the organization frequently turns loose onto the streets individuals from outside the county that choose to leave prematurely for one reason or another.
“Some people just like to be homeless and not follow any rules,” he said.
As part of its rules, recovery home guests who receive government-provided financial assistance are also obligated to provide the organization with 30 percent of their income, he said.
Those monies are used to help offset expenses associated with tenants’ free room and board.
As part of the FBI’s enforcement action Tuesday, Gonzalez said that authorities had seized the Supplemental Security Income card of one female recovery home guest.
District Attorney Gilbert Otero said his office was previously made aware of allegations that IV Ministries was possibly using its clients’ public assistance benefits for its own benefit, but had not received a formal request to launch an investigation.
Nor had federal officials advised the county DA’s Office of any investigation they had planned to undertake against IV Ministries, he said.
Former heroin addict and El Centro resident Martha Oliver said that she was able to turn her life around after successfully having completed IVM’s recovery program more than 20 years ago.
Grateful for her newfound sobriety, Oliver became part of a small group of devotees from the Valley that went on to establish the IVM-affiliated Cincinnati Restoration Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, which had also been visited by FBI agents on Tuesday. “Hopefully with this investigation, we’ll find out if we’re doing anything wrong,” she said.