In 2014 when Pastor Trevon Gross and former chair and CEOof a credit union took a $150,000 bribe from criminals to use thecooperative as a front to operate an illegal Bitcoin operation, theNew Jersey clergyman appeared on a national television Christianprogram and preached about the sin of pride.

But Pastor Gross won't be preaching on a national televisionstage any time soon after he was sentenced Monday to five years infederal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Alison J. Nathan in NewYork City. On Oct. 20, Judge Nathan also sentenced aco-conspirator, Yuri Lebedev, to 16 months in prison. While he wasa board member of the $626,529 Helping Other People ExcelFederal Credit Union, Lebedev bribed Gross who was the board chairand CEO of the Lakewood, N.J.-based cooperative.

Gross remains listed as the founding and lead pastor of the HopeCathedral in Jackson, according to the church's website. The churchdid not respond to a CU Times request for commentWednesday.

Judge Nathan also ordered Gross to pay $194,293 in restitutionto the NCUA.

In a victim statement filed with the court, the NCUA noted thathad the illegal operations not taken place, the credit union wouldnot have expended its equity to support the unlawful Bitcoin schemeand could have survived.

“Gross and Lebedev's illegal actions brought about the demise ofa once healthy credit union that had been in existence for 36years,” the NCUA board wrote in its letter. “The demise of thiscredit union affected approximately 110 credit union memberscausing innumerable hardships.”

In March, Gross and Lebedev were convicted after a four-week jury trialof conspiring to make corrupt payments to an officer of a financialinstitution, to receive corrupt payments by an officer of afinancial institution, to obstruct an NCUA examination of afinancial institution, and to make false statements to theNCUA. Gross was also convicted of the receipt of corruptpayments by an officer of a financial institution. Lebedevwas also convicted of making corrupt payments to an officer of afinancial institution, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiring tocommit wire fraud and bank fraud.

In addition, during the sentencing hearing, Judge Nathan alsoruled that Gross committed perjury when he testified under oath attrial.

Between 2013 and July 2015, Lebedev, who was a computerprogrammer, helped operate Coin.mx, an unlawful internet-basedBitcoin exchange, along with Anthony Murgio, the founder ofCoin.mx. In June, Murgio was sentenced to more than five years inprison.

To conceal the Bitcoin exchange, they initially operated afake front company to open bank accounts and tricked financialinstitutions into believing the exchange was a members-onlyassociation of individuals who bought and sold collectible itemsand memorabilia. They also deceived financial institutions bymisidentifying and miscoding Coin.mx customers' credit and debitcard transactions. Through the illegal Coin.mx scheme, Lebedev andMurgio illegally processed more than $10 million in Bitcoin-relatedtransactions, according to prosecutors.

In 2014, in an effort to evade scrutiny from the banks, Lebedevand Murgio gained control of HOPE FCU after making more than$150,000 in illegal bribes to Gross, He also directed Lebedev andMurgio to deposit the bribe money into the church's bankaccounts.

With Gross' assistance, Murgio installed Lebedev and otherco-conspirators on HOPE FCU's board of directors and transferredCoin.mx's banking operations to the credit union. Gross also cededoperational control of the credit union to the board membersinstalled by Murgio, including Lebedev, according to courtdocuments.

Gross, Lebedev, and others worked to run tens of millions ofdollars of ACH transactions through the credit union withoutadequate controls, thus putting its financial condition at risk.HOPE FCU was operated as a captive bank through the end of2014.

To cover up their control of the credit union, Gross, Lebedevand Murgio obstructed an NCUA examination, lied to examiners andmanipulated the books to conceal the fact that the tiny cooperativefounded to serve low-income members was processing tens of millionsof dollars of transactions without adequate controls.

By October 2015, the NCUA placed HOPE FCU into conservatorshipand liquidated it.