A former Crofton pastor was federally sentenced to two years in prison on fraud and tax offenses.
That’s according to a news release from the United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, which states that 58-year-old Marvin Uptown was sentenced to two years and three months in prison—to be followed by three years of supervised release—on three counts of bank fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns.
Until recently, Upton was the pastor at Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton. The bank fraud charges stem from a scheme during the Upton’s time there from 2013 to 2016 to defraud one of the elderly parishioners who was suffering from dementia.
Dur that same time, Upton also submitted multiple false tax returns that left out income from the fraudulent scheme.
Along with his sentence, Upton was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $500,000 to the victim’s estate and $222,000 in restitution to the IRS. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case was investigated and prosecuted as part of the National Elder Justice Task Force and the Kentucky Elder Justice Task Force, along with the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.