Pastor arrested in NC for forced labor scheme that collected $50 million
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- Federal agents arrested a Durham pastor for leading a $50M forced labor scheme.
- Indictment details abuse of unpaid church workers to solicit fraudulent donations.
- Funds supported luxury purchases, not charities, violating federal labor laws.
A 53-year-old pastor was arrested in Durham Wednesday after a federal indictment accused him of forcing recruits into nonstop labor, denying sleep, food or freedom while they collected millions of dollars in donations that he spent on luxury cars and boats, the Justice Department reported Wednesday.
Federal agents in Durham arrested David Taylor, who called himself “Apostle” and “Jesus’ Best Friend,” and also claimed to have regular face-to-face encounters with God. Also indicted in the forced-labor conspiracy is Michelle Brannon, 56, arrested Wednesday in Florida.
Taylor led Kingdom of God Global Church and set up nine call centers in Michigan, Missouri, Florida and Texas to raise money through donations, according to the indictment, issued July 23.
Taylor then recruited unpaid phone solicitors to staff these call centers, which raised an estimated $50 million since 2014. He called these workers “armor bearers,” the indictment said, and required them to provide food, keep up his house and cars, and bring women to his house — making sure they took plan B contraceptives first.
Armor bearers were required to sleep in the call centers and meet unrealistic daily fund-raising goals, telling victims that donations would go toward charity, the indictment said. They were also required to apply for EBT cards, falsely claiming to be homeless, which provided their meals.
Those who failed to meet goals faced punishment consisting of “humiliation, sleep deprivation, forced ‘repentance,’ additional work, food restrictions, physical assaults, and threats of divine justice in the form of sickness, accidents death and eternal damnation,” the indictment said.
A text to church workers from 2021 demanded $50,000 from call center workers before midnight, promising the top nine performers could sleep while the others would study notes until 4 a.m. and eat only soup, salad and water.
“My next level of judgment is that it won’t be to just 4 a.m. it will be every hour you waste in the day will be added on past 4 a.m.!” Taylor wrote, according to the indictment. “TELL THEM ALL TO STAND NOW AND YOU THROW WATER IN THEIR FACES! Especially the people not doing anything or helping bring in the money! You tell them I don’t care about them being sick!!”
Taylor appeared in a Durham courtroom on the indictment Wednesday; Brannon in Tampa.
The counts named in the indictment — conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor and conspiracy to commit money laundering — all carry penalties up to 20 years in federal prison.
“Combating human trafficking is a top priority for the Department of Justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a news release. “We are committed to relentlessly pursuing and ending this scourge and obtaining justice for the victims.”
Rather than charitable causes, money from the call-centers went to bank accounts registered to Kingdom of God Global Church and Joshua Media Ministries International, its former name.
That money, the indictment said, went toward buying several Mercedes Benz and Bentley automobiles, five ATVs, two jet skis and a Rolls Royce valued higher than $120,000.
This story was originally published August 27, 2025 at 3:49 PM.