The Reverend KirbyJon Caldwell gives the invocation during the Celebration of Athletes at Toyota Center on June 21, 2011 in Houston, Texas.
(Photo by Bob Levey/WireImage)HOUSTON – A Texas megachurch pastor and former spiritual adviser to two U.S. presidents has been sentenced to six years in prison for bilking investors out of millions of dollars.
Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, 67, was sentenced Wednesday in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he and his co-defendant, Gregory A. Smith, were indicted in 2018.
Caldwell, who in March pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was the senior pastor of Houston's Windsor Village United Methodist Church, which has about 14,000 members.
Caldwell used about $900,000 he received from the scheme to maintain his lifestyle and pay down credit cards and mortgages, according to the Justice Department.