This FAKE Millionaire Scammed The Church

Ephren Taylor II rose to fame as a self-proclaimed "teenage tycoon," building a massive public profile as a financial guru and "social capitalist" who supposedly earned his first million by age 16. Leveraging this manufactured persona and his status as a minister’s son, he launched a "Building Wealth" tour that targeted African American megachurches, including Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Under the guise of Biblical, "risk-free" investments in small businesses and sweepstakes machines, Taylor orchestrated a $16 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded over 400 people of their life savings.