Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This FAKE Millionaire Scammed The Church - The Ephren Taylor Money Scandal

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

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.

So this guy scams churchgoers out of millions of dollars in order to fund his wife's pop star career? Now the guy's name is Ephron, and Ephron is about 16 when this story starts, and he's living in Kansas, and Ephron is a pretty smart kid. When he was 12, he programmed his own video game and sold about 30 copies to his friends. He also started designing websites for people, and he got paid for that too. And that's great and all, but what he really wants is to be. become famous and make himself millions. So one day in 1998, while he's still in high school,

Ephron and a friend come up with an idea. They're going to create a job posting website where high school students can find part-time jobs. And so they get to work and they build the site. They call it Go Ferret Go. And it works. The site starts getting a bunch of visitors. But soon they run into some problems.

Mainly, the site doesn't get enough traffic to sustain itself. So around 2001, without many users, the site slowly dies off. And this is devastating for Ephron. I mean, his dream of becoming a huge success story and getting rich suddenly feels like it's slipping away. And he isn't ready to accept that. So that same year, when he's around 19, he comes up with another idea. What if he just lies and tells people that his... his site was a huge success. And that's exactly what he does. He starts claiming that his

go-ferret go site is getting a lot more traffic than it actually is, and it raised about $700,000 and that it was valued at $3.2 million. He even says that he personally made a million from the company and that he's a teenage millionaire, when in fact he is not. Oh, but he doesn't stop there, because they never do. As the years go on, Ephron starts writing books about his supposed success. And before long, he starts appearing on major media outlets like CNN, Forbes, CNBC, NPR. He even went on the Montel Williams show. So I went on to high school, ended up creating my own internet company, raised three quarters of a million dollars in high school. And all this good publicity makes Ephron extremely popular. But popularity isn't Ephraim's only goal.

Remember, he's also trying to get rich. So he starts thinking. about ways to monetize his popularity. And that is when he realizes that people already believe that he's a financial success. And he's willing to bet that they'll also trust him with their money. And old Ephrain, he knows exactly where to find the perfect people to grift. Church. Because here's the thing about Ephraim. He's actually the son of a preacher. So he already has some recognition and credibility in the church community. So he's thinking he should convince the congregation of a local church that he's a financial advisor with a special investment program that can help make them lots of money.

And then, once they're on board, he'll scam them. And so Ephron gets to work on this plan. And we're in like 2009 now. And that is when Ephron reaches out to this guy, Pastor Eddie. And Pastor Eddie is the pastor of a megachurch in Atlanta, and he has a large following. So Ephraim pitches his entire investment idea to him, and he promises that he can show him and his congregation a way to invest their money and that it's all legit and it's biblical, so it's going to make them all so rich. And I guess Pastor Eddie hears this, and he's like, praise be. And so soon enough, one Sunday morning, Pastor Eddie allows Ephron to get up in front of his megachurch and deliver a sermon on how to build wealth the biblical way.

Whatever that means. We're going to show you how to get wealth and use it for the building of his kingdom. And so he's there and he's up on stage bullshitting the congregation, telling them all they have to do is invest their money with him. And he claims he's going to put it into real estate and into small businesses like laundromats and gas stations and stuff, not into sinful businesses like strip clubs. And that 20% of the profits will go to charity. So investing your life savings with Ephraim is basically like feeding the poor. And this congregation hears all this, and they believe him, and they give him their money. Once Ephron sees how easy it is to fool these people, he knows that he can't stop with just this one church.

So he goes to another church, and he does it again and again and again, hyping people up, convincing them to give him their money. And over time, more and more people are handing over their life savings and their retirement funds and their investments. But he doesn't stop there. He wants to go bigger. And at one point, he gets really into the business of sweepstakes machines, which are basically like digital slot machines, like they're loaded with casino-style games, and people can win money by playing them. And sometimes you'll see those at like gas stations and stuff.

So now, when Ephron goes to one of these churches and speaks, he tells the people that he's in the sweepstakes machine business, and he claims he's going to buy a bunch of machines, and so everyone should invest with him because he can get them a return on their investment of up to 300%. And once again, people believe him, and they give him their money. Now, in reality, none of this is true. He ain't buying those sweepstakes machines. In reality, Ephron is actually running. one big Ponzi scheme. And now, the best part of this Ponzi scheme is actually what he's spending his money on. Like he's got himself a nice New York City apartment. He hires a PR firm to help promote his public image so he can get more famous. He pays to promote his own books. But along with that, he also uses a lot of that money to fund his wife's pop music career. Yes, apparently his wife is trying to be a pop singer. One plus one equals more of the greatest stories. Hulu on Disney Plus.

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Now, by this point in the story, Ephraim has scammed more than 400 churchgoers across 43 different states out of $16 million. Now, if you've been watching my videos for a while, you already know the problem with Ponzi schemes like this one. They all eventually collapse in on themselves. And around 2010, that's exactly what happens in this case. At some point, the money just simply runs out. And now there's nothing left to pay old investors. So investors get pissed off and they start demanding their money back. And Ephron, he starts to kind of freak out and he decides it's time to run. And so he and his pop star wife, they just disappear and they move to a suburb in Kansas. And there,

Ephron grows out his hair into braids and he and his wife assume new identities and they start working together in a massage shop. And they actually managed to stay hidden. I mean, who knows if anyone will ever be able to find them? Until, until around 2012, when ABC News releases a news segment talking about Ephron and exposing his massive fraud scheme, they actually release a couple of segments on him. And the landlord of the massage shop where Effron and his wife work, just happens to see one of these segments. And she contacts reporters at ABC and she's like, I know that guy. And later, a bunch of government agencies finally step in and they charge Ephron with fraud. And he eventually goes and he turns himself in. And so, bam, he gets arrested. Here's a picture of him in real life.

And ultimately, Ephrain takes a plea deal and he gets a. sentence to 19 years and seven months in prison. While his wife wasn't actually charged with anything, because I guess she wasn't actually doing the fraud. She was just enjoying the money. But I don't think she ever actually became a pop star.