Marcus Eichelberger, arrested on April 14, has pleaded not guilty to four federal charges of wire fraud. Each charge could potentially lead to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former pastor from Jacksonville is now facing federal charges of wire fraud. The allegations suggest his involvement in a scheme to defraud a pandemic relief program of $50,000 through fraudulent loans.
According to a LinkedIn profile, Eichelberger has served as a co-pastor at the Cathedral of Deliverance, located at 1939 Belvedere St., since 2017. Although he was indicted in November, the details of the case remained sealed from public access for several months.
Upon his April 14 arrest, Eichelberger entered a plea of not guilty to all four charges, each carrying a potential 20-year prison sentence.
Recently unsealed court documents, updated on April 15, reveal that prosecutors believe Eichelberger’s case could be linked to charges against two other individuals. These individuals reportedly received funds through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program during the economic downturn caused by the Covid pandemic.
In one of the associated cases, Talia McIntyre admitted guilt in February to aiding and abetting wire fraud. She is believed to be the unnamed “Witness-1” mentioned in Eichelberger’s indictment.
The indictment says Eichelberger approached her and convinced her in 2021 to file forms saying she had a non-existent catering business and to withdraw $49,999 to meet her payroll obligations.
The money was formally a loan but was forgivable as long as it was used for true business purposes, but a plea agreement McIntyre signed said she never did any catering.
The agreement quoted texts between her and the unnamed minister, whom the agreement said instructed McIntyre to send him a part of the payments.
“Use the money wisely and don’t spend most of it on others!! LOL,” the agreement quoted a text from the minister named only as “Individual-1.”
“Spending it on yourself is ABSOLUTELY ACCEPTABLE…”, the plea agreement quoted Individual-1’s text.
The agreement said McIntyre ultimately transferred $19,000 to Individual-1 and used the rest to pay her credit card and get cash withdrawals.
A notice from prosecutors lists Eichelberger as a “potential co-defendant” in the other related case, an indictment filed April 8 charging Justin Burns with aiding and abetting separate instances of wire fraud.
That indictment says Burns was approached by a pastor in 2020 about applying to SBA for help from its Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for business owners, although he didn’t own a state-licensed business.
Burns didn’t own a state-licensed business but ended up getting $130,000 from SBA in two loans, says the indictment, which says Burns went along with directions from a pastor labeled Person-1 and filled out an SBA loan application online. Burns and Person-1 each got a share of the cash, the indictment says.
Burns pleaded not guilty to the three counts he faced during an initial appearance hearing April 10.
Editor’s note: This story was first published by the Florida Times-Union.
