HE PREYED AT CHURCH

Parishioners: Abyssinian deacon scammed big bucks

A deacon from the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church proved to be more flimflam man than man of the cloth.

A pair of lawsuits filed earlier this month by parishioners at the venerable Harlem house of God allege that Jerome Yeiser used his position in the church to dupe its members out of tens of thousands of dollars in a scam that Pastor Calvin Butts knew about yet failed to caution his flock.

Court papers describe Yeiser as “a convicted felon purporting himself to be a licensed general contractor … and convincing unsuspecting [Abyssinian] parishioners to employ him as a general/home improvement contractor so that he can abscond with their money.”

Yeiser (photo) admitted spending some of the supposed home renovation cash to pay for a personal vacation and his daughter’s school tuition, according to one of the suits.

Plaintiffs John and Cheryl Graves, in their U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing in Manhattan, alleged that Butts told them in 2014 that “other members of the church … had been defrauded out of thousands of dollars.” The couple lost more than $10,000 paid to refurbish the basement of their Madison Ave. home, and eventually wound up with Yeiser owing them $48,155.

“We are extremely disappointed that we have to spend time seeking to recoup our hard-earned funds after bring deceived and defrauded by Jerome

Yeiser,” the couple said. “His shameless behavior and actions are even more egregious due to the trust we had in him as a fellow church member.”

Four years later, fellow parishioners Tommie Porter and Mara Schiavocampo were allegedly scammed out of nearly $200,000 by Yeiser, according to their federal court filing. The couple had hired Yeiser to renovate their five-story Harlem brownstone at a cost of $539,000, but became skeptical about his work almost immediately.

“Very quickly (the couple) realized that the project was not going as expected … various phases of the project were not being completed in a timely manner, if at all,” their Manhattan Bankruptcy Court papers alleged.

The couple went to Butts last year about Yeiser’s lucrative scam, only to hear the same story given to the other victims: “they were not the first victims of the debtor’s ‘business’ and that other members of the church … had been defrauded out of thousands of dollars in fact patterns that were eerily similar,” court papers claimed.

The couple’s complaint said they paid $482,431 to Yeiser, who “explicitly admits … that he owes them money from funds they previously paid him.” The Porters put the total debt at $192,000.

Yeiser, who lives with his wife in New Rochelle, filed for bankruptcy protection last August.

An email to the church for comment on the scam was not immediately returned Wednesday. The historic Abyssinian is one of the city’s oldest churches, dating back to 1808, with its current Harlem incarnation opening in 1923.

“When you go to church, you think most people are like-minded and you tend to trust the individuals there,” said John Graves. “When you find out that’s not the case, it does kind of upset you.”