The two leaders of an alleged cult that operated call centers in four states, including one out of a mansion in St. Louis that once belonged to Nelly, have been federally indicted in Michigan on forced labor and money laundering conspiracy charges.
David E. Taylor and Michelle Brannon were arrested yesterday in North Carolina and Florida for their role in the Kingdom of God Global Church, which federal prosecutors said relied upon forced labor and human trafficking. Taylor’s picture has long featured prominently on a billboard near St. Louis Lambert International Airport, advertising his ability to cure people of their need for crutches and wheelchairs. Taylor also goes by the name “The Apostle” and has boasted publicly of being able to raise the dead.
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The indictment made public today lists Taylor as the leader of the Kingdom of God Global Church. Taylor is its executive director.
The two are accused of coercing their followers into staffing call centers, as Taylor and Brannon “controlled every aspect of daily living,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Michigan, which is bringing the charges. The people forced to work the call centers cold-called people seeking donations to the church. Prosecutors say that Taylor “set unobtainable daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly monetary donation goals,” and when these goals were not met, Taylor and Brannon restricted followers’ access to food and shelter, also wielding “threats of divine judgment in the form of sickness, accidents, and eternal damnation.”
As the Riverfront Times reported in 2022, Taylor’s church owned eight other properties in West County, in addition to Nelly’s former mansion in Wildwood. Neighbors of one house in Chesterfield, on Wildhorse Meadow Drive, suspected at the time that it was being used as a call center. The church vacated the property after approximately four years of complaints from neighbors, who told police that 30 or more people were living in the residence, that people were loaded in and out of vans, and that sunglass-wearing men seemed to stand guard outside the door.
Neighbors of another church-owned house, on Hager Lane in Chesterfield, said that U-Hauls and high-end cars were always coming and going at odd hours.
The indictments made public specifically reference the properties on Hager and Wildhorse Meadows as locations of call centers, along with the Wildwood mansion that once belonged to Nelly. The church purchased that 10,000-square-foot, Tuscan-style pad in 2021. Other houses listed as call center sites include properties in Michigan, Houston, and the Florida cities of Tampa and Ocala.
According to the indictment against Taylor and Brannon, Taylor instructed followers working the call centers to lie and say that collected money was to be used to build wells in impoverished parts of the world and to fight human trafficking. The call center operation is said to have brought in around $50 million since 2014, money that prosecutors say Taylor and Brannon spent on real estate, luxury vehicles (many of them bulletproof), jet skis, ATVs, and a boat.
The slave-like labor that went into collecting that money is described in Taylor’s and Brannon’s text messages, which are included in the indictment.
Reads one message Taylor sent to Brannon: “WARNING — FROM APOSTLE Michelle deal out consequences to all the closers…that are not bringing in their amount … Garage in Tampa and take away food now!! I want those in Ocala who supposed to be doing their work but are not punished and out in the garage and their food away.” Other messages reference call center workers being forced to work until 4 a.m. and then starting again at 8 a.m.
The indictment lists eight victims, none by name. However, the indictment says that some individuals remained under Taylor’s and Brannon’s sway for as long as a decade.
In addition to forcing followers to work grueling hours at their call centers, federal prosecutors say Taylor maintained a corps of “armor bearers,” whom he used as personal servants. “Taylor demanded that his Armor Bearers transport women from ministry houses, airports, and other locations to Taylor’s location and ensured the women transported to Taylor took Plan B emergency contraceptives,” prosecutors said in a press release.
Following their arrests, Taylor will make his initial appearance in court today in Durham, North Carolina. Brannon will appear in court in Tampa.
Hear more about this story on The 314 Podcast.
