Former Missouri Pastor Convicted of All Charges in Pandemic and Loan Fraud Schemes
A federal jury found Kenneth C. Sparks III guilty of all 20 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, in connection with pandemic loan and personal loan fraud schemes.
2 reports on this incident · first at Aug 26, 2026, 10:14 p.m. ET
This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
We last searched for new coverage of this at Aug 26, 2026, 11:08 p.m. ET — checked 45 min ago.
Earlier reports
Aug 26, 2026, 10:14 p.m. ETFirst report
Former Missouri Pastor Convicted of All Charges in Pandemic and Loan Fraud Schemes
ST. LOUIS – A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, convicted the former visiting pastor of a Missouri church of all 20 counts he faced related to a $1.2 million pandemic loan fraud scheme and a more than $600,000 auto and personal loan fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Kenneth C. Sparks III, 56, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft and 10 counts of money laundering. The trial started Monday and jurors deliberated for about an hour.
Evidence showed Sparks used Faith Walk Ministry in Paris, Missouri, to run a "full-time fraud operation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman told jurors. Sparks fraudulently obtained an Economic Injury Disaster Loan for himself and then used parishioners' personal and bank account information to apply for additional loans, directing them to open accounts and sign blank checks. About 40 fraudulent EIDL and Paycheck Protection Program loans were obtained, totaling $1.2 million, according to IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Aaron Joifrita. Just over $1 million went to Sparks, who wrote $313,000 in checks to himself, obtained $172,000 via cash withdrawals or advances, and spent $168,000 at luxury retailers, $127,000 on real estate and $47,000 on jewelry, including a diamond-studded Rolex watch.
Sparks also directed a scheme that took out $685,000 in personal and auto loans in his name and the names of others. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1. Ten other defendants have pleaded guilty or accepted responsibility. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case. The Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 127 Aug 2026, 02:22current
First published.
- Version 127 Aug 2026, 02:14current
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.