"your church... none of them are a bank or financial advisor so they can't be trusted with your money."
Standard trick - use people who the victims know and trust, or are well known and respected in the community. That's the way people work - they assume it's not necessary to plough through all the checks because "X wouldn't lie to me".
Classic example of running a Ponzi scheme in this way: Bernie Madoff
Biting the hand that feeds IT
