SEC charges Georgia company with scamming churches out of millions

PHILADELPHIA - The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing a Georgia businessman of using false promises to borrow nearly $3 million from nearly a thousand, mostly black, churches. <br> <br> A federal lawsuit filed by the SEC charges Abraham Kennard, of Wildwood, and his firm -- Network International Investment Corporation -- with promising pastors across the country a return of a half million dollars for every three-thousand dollars they invested in a chain of Christian-themed vacation resorts. <br> <br> The suit filed in Philadelphia Tuesday says at least two million dollars wound up in the bank account of one of the company&#39;s officers, and no resorts were built. <br> <br> A phone call to Kennard&#39;s office in northwest Georgia was not immediately returned.