From the Daily Mail: Private jets, boats, a fleet of luxury cars and a sprawling 10-bedroom Florida mansion – such assets sound like the trappings of a rock star or billionaire tycoon.
But federal prosecutors say megachurch pastor David E Taylor built this lavish empire by running his church like a sweatshop – forcing worshipers to toil for free in call centers while he lived large, collected expensive toys and allegedly bedded dozens of women.
Taylor, 53, and his executive director Michelle Brannon, 56, are charged with orchestrating a multimillion-dollar forced-labor and money-laundering scheme through their Kingdom of God Global Church, which operated across Michigan, Texas, Florida, Missouri and North Carolina.
Federal prosecutors allege the pair used physical, psychological and spiritual coercion to trap followers in unpaid labor, isolating them from the outside world and driving them to exhaustion in the name of God.
Victims were allegedly deprived of sleep and food, berated, humiliated and threatened with divine punishment if they failed to meet punishing fundraising targets – all while being told their suffering was holy.
Through the call centers, prosecutors say Taylor raked in tens of millions of dollars with “donation drives” pitched as charitable missions, then spent the money on luxury homes, high-end vehicles, a luxury boat, all-terrain vehicles and other recreational toys.
He used the 10-bedroom, $8.3 million mansion in a gated community in Tampa, Florida as the church’s headquarters. One of the call centers was also located in the mansion.
The Daily Mail noted that Taylor often berated the call center workers when their fundraising totals didn’t meet his expectations. In one text to the call center workers, he raged, “QUESTION?!? Why are we only at $18k tonight!?? These are all excuses and lies!! Because when all of you are doing bad it’s because you all are doing evil and disfocused [sic] especially when Michelle is not over you making you do what you know you should be doing!! I don’t buy your lies!”
“All who is doing this will be going on the street for 15 days picking up trash tirelessly!!” Taylor fumed in the text message.
Taylor’s right-hand accomplice, Michelle Brannon, also faces forced labor charges. The report explains that both Taylor and Brannon were arrested in August 2025 – Taylor in Durham, North Carolina, and Brannon in Tampa. He is still being held in federal custody, but she has been released on bail.
Taylor and Brannon allegedly controlled every aspect of the call center workers’ lives, forcing them to work long hours and not allowing them to leave the property without permission. Brannon lived in a plush suite of the mansion, but the workers were allegedly forced to sleep on floors or in a garage, and to be on call around the clock.
When the workers failed to meet fundraising goals, their punishments included public humiliation, extra labor, food and shelter restrictions, forced repentance, sleep deprivation, psychological abuse, physical assaults and threats of divine judgment – including sickness, accidents and eternal damnation, the Justice Department revealed in a press release.
The Daily Mail explains that Taylor launched his church – first known as Joshua Media Ministries International – in the late 1980s or early 1990s after claiming Jesus appeared to him in a dream and told him to abandon a life of gangs and drugs in Memphis, Tennessee. He built his following by portraying himself as a modern prophet with ‘face-to-face’ encounters with Jesus. He raked in approximately $50 million in donations since 2014.
Taylor established his first call center in Taylor, Michigan, and then operated call centers in other locations in the United States including in Florida, Texas, and Missouri.
When FBI agents raided the Florida mansion, they found $500,000 in gold bars, $60,000 in cash, valuable jewelry, multiple Mercedes-Benz vehicles, Bentley sedans, a 2024 Rolls-Royce, designer clothing and handbags and roughly $1.6 million in Iraqi dinars.
READ MORE of the wild tale from the Daily Mail.
Below is a report by 10 Tampa Bay News on August 27, following the FBI raid.
UPDATE: Anyone with information related to this investigation is encouraged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online at https://t.co/0eeH1tVIxf.https://t.co/CrsTRnseCR
— FBI Tampa (@FBITampa) August 29, 2025
In September of last year, 10 Tampa Bay News interviewed David Taylor’s ex-girlfriend, gospel singer Vicki Yohe.
Below is the full interview with Yohe:
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