Pastor defrauded San Francisco churchgoers of over $400K: DA

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A pastor used his position of trust to defraud parishioners of a church in San Francisco’s Sunset District of more than $400,000, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Tuesday. Kenny Man Wong, 56, of Los Angeles, has been charged with four counts of grand theft.

Wong began serving a church on 19th Avenue as a visiting pastor in 2018, where he was known as “Dr. Wong,” according to prosecutors. He allegedly began “offering legal services to his parishioners, claiming that in addition to being a pastor, he was also an attorney affiliated with several prestigious universities,” the San Francisco District Attorney’s office wrote.

Wong is not licensed to practice law in California, prosecutors said.

In the following years, Wong allegedly continued to extract money “from those who trusted him most” and told his victims he was still working on their cases, according to the DA’s office. Wong allegedly used the over $400,000 he stole to purchase a home in Southern California.

Wong “never rendered any of the promised legal services,” the DA’s office wrote. “When victims confronted him, he allegedly continued to reassure them, citing to their shared faith.”

Wong is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.