Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Rich Preacher FINALLY Got Caught // The David Apostle Taylor Fraud Story

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

David Edward Taylor, a self-proclaimed televangelist and "Apostle," led the Kingdom of God Global Church (KOGGC). In a sweeping 2025 federal indictment, prosecutors revealed that Taylor and executive director Michelle Brannon operated a coercive multi-state forced labor and fraud scheme.

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And he claims that he can like see the future and that he predicted 9-11 and other geopolitical events. In fact, he doesn't even say he's a preacher or a pastor. He tells people that he's an apostle. That's how important he thinks he is. Here's the thing, though. David has a problem. He really likes nice things, and he really wants to be living a lavish lifestyle. But I guess being a pastor isn't bringing in enough money.

So one day in 2013, he decides he's going to use his position as the head of his own church to scam some funds. And to do that, he needs to be able to reach more people. So he creates a call center and a church-owned property. And he has a team of people calling strangers and asking them for donations. And in exchange for the money, he offers them prayer and a dream interpretation. Which, I guess, is where you tell them about a dream you had and this person working at the call center will tell you what that dream is supposed to mean. And this works.

I mean, people start giving him money. In fact, it works so well that he starts making commercials, telling people to call in. And so he and his church leader partner, this woman, Michelle, they want to keep this scam going. And so from there, they decide to open up more call centers in other locations in the U.S., like Florida and Texas and Missouri and other places. And dream interpretation must be a lucrative business because pretty soon the donations are just rolling in. and David and Michelle are making a gang of money. And of course, they start spending it.

Not to help the community or feed the poor or anything like that. They spend it on themselves. They buy nice properties and nice cars, including several Mercedes-Benzes and Bentley's and even a customized Rolls-Royce. They also buy a boat and jet skis and ATVs. They even spend crazy amounts of money on luxury food, like thousands of dollars on 125 pounds of king crab legs.

I mean, you get the point. These guys are living large. But here's the thing. To keep the money coming in, David needs lots of workers to exploit and he needs them cheap. So he recruits church members to staff the call centers full time. And he lies to them and he promises them spiritual fulfillment and that working full time in the call centers will guarantee them a place in heaven. And this apparently sounds great to the people they're recruiting. I mean, who needs a living wage when you're guaranteed a spot in heaven. But once these people join, it's like they're stepping into an authoritarian cult because David and Michelle take total control of their lives. For example, there's this one guy, Clifton, and Clifton, he decides to uproot his entire family and come work for David and be his personal assistant. And eventually, he becomes one of David's personal servants, like he cooks for him and he cleans for him and he drives him around. And because he thinks all this work is serving a higher purpose, Clifton does all of this without receiving a single paycheck. Oh, and it's not just him. The church treats the other workers just as bad because they control

every aspect of these workers' lives. The workers often have to sleep in the call center facilities. They can't leave without permission. They're sometimes denied medical care and they're denied food. Basically, Clifton and the others are not even allowed to have a private conversation with their own spouses without getting into trouble. And to help make sure no one questions the things that they're doing, David and Michelle cut their workers off from family and friends, and they basically isolate them from the outside world, you know, kind of like your average cult. And if all that behavior isn't culty enough, it actually gets worse. Because David apparently loves smashing, with all kinds of women. Now, normally this would be fine because, you know, he's a single man. And

but he dates a lot, and he keeps each woman secret from the other women he's dating. In fact, he hooks up with so many women that he makes his personal servants, like Clifton, drive women from ministry houses and airports and other places to wherever David is staying so that he can smash with them. And then the servants also have to make sure the women take Plan B emergency contraception afterwards so that they don't get pregnant. That's pretty sleazy. But even still, all this shady behavior isn't enough satisfaction for David.

He apparently wants more. So he comes up with other ways that his workers can get him more money. Like he starts forcing some of them to claim to be homeless and apply for EBT cards so that they can then hand those cards back over to David and the church. And when donations to the church start to decline, David apparently tells the workers to start lying to people donating and saying things like donations will be spent on completing charity projects like building water wells for poor communities or supporting victims of human trafficking. And these lies get people to donate more. And at some point, he starts setting unreachable donation goals for the workers and his call centers.

Numbers they couldn't possibly hit. He also makes them work more than 20 hours a day. without pay. And if they don't reach these goals, they're punished. And if they make a mistake, they're punished. If they complain or try and leave, believe it or not, punished. And the punishment is, of course, they're threatened with biblical judgment. They're told if they don't do their job, then they'll get really sick and they'll eventually be sent to hell. And sometimes they get punished worse than that. Sometimes they're yelled at and humiliated in front of all the other workers. Sometimes they're not allowed to eat.

Sometimes they're physically assaulted and made to get down on their knees and repent. And David, he justifies these punishments by telling them that it's because the Lord wants them to work this hard for him. And I guess they believe him because these people stick around. Now, Michelle actually does a lot of this dirty work. She enforces the rules and gives out the punishments. Like, she'll humiliate them in public and she'll call them all sorts of insults. and racial slurs. She'll throw buckets of icy water on them while they sleep.

And all this cult-like abuse allegedly goes on for a long time, while David and Michelle rake in millions of dollars. In the decade that they do all this, they pull in nearly $50 million in donations. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer.

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because suddenly the FBI starts investigating. And in 2025, boom, the FBI and the IRS raid several properties belonging to David's church. They also raid Michelle's $10 bedroom $8 million mansion, and there they find 57 church workers and victims living in the mansion with more than 12 workers all forced to live in one living quarters above the garage, all sharing one bathroom. The feds also raid David's mansion,

and they find a bunch of kids living and working in the call centers there. They also find thousands of explicit photos and videos of a bunch of the female workers. Who the hell knows what was going on there? And so anyway, bam, they arrest David. Here's his mugshot. Also, bam, they arrest Michelle, too. Here's her mugshot. And at the time of me making this video,

neither David nor Michelle have been to trial, so technically all of this is alleged. But despite all that, David's church is still active and still operating and still accepting donations to this day.