Schulte Appointed to Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee For AME Church Lawsuit

Richard W. Schulte has been appointed to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee for the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church Multi District Litigation which is based in the United States District Court in the Western District of Tennessee. The Plaintiffs are various pastors that are owned millions of dollars due to alleged improper investments of retirement money.

The AME Church has sued a former executive, Rev. Jerome V. Harris, who was in charge of its pension plan’s investment portfolio. Stating that he, and others, embezzled money and defrauded its clergy and church ministers who were relying on its annuity plan for their retirement. Harris was executive director of the Department of Retirement Services for 21 years.

The AME Church is comprised of over 5,000 clergy and church employees. Many of which who we planning on retiring on the church’s pension plans. The AME Church states that Harris, “engaged in a conspiracy with several individuals and/or entities to embezzle funds and defraud AMEC by, among other things, providing AMEC with deceptive, false, and grossly inflated financial statements for the African Methodist Episcopal Church Ministerial Retirement Annuity Plan.” One claim states that a sum of over $90 million is missing.

You can read more about this lawsuit and story here: www.washingtonpost.com & www.ajc.com