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Citizen-Times reports,
Bellamy to give bank fraud player’s donation to charity
Money given by fraud convict
ASHEVILLE — Democratic congressional candidate Terry Bellamy will give to charity $350 she got from a local pastor facing five years in prison for his part in a bank fraud scheme involving real estate investors.
Nicholas Dimitris, who leads C3 Church on Merrimon Avenue, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy for serving as a straw borrower to get $825,000 from Pisgah Community Bank, according to federal court papers.
Dimitris made the political donation in February, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Fundraising reports were due Sunday.
Dimitris’ donation is a small part of Bellamy’s total.She is winning the money race among Democrats in the 10th District primary with $121,356 raised in the first quarter. Most of the money came from individuals.
She had $52,433 on hand at the end of the quarter. She got $2,400 from four political groups, including outgoing Democratic 11th District U.S. Rep Heath Shuler’s 3rd and Long PAC.
Bellamy, also Asheville’s mayor, said she did not know Dimitris personally but does know his wife and once spoke at his church in her official capacity as the city’s top leader.
She said she made the decision to give the money to Western Carolinians for Criminal Justice on Patton Avenue after being asked about Dimitris’ donation by the Citizen-Times this week.
“We felt that would be a better place for his funding,” she said.
Four people have already pleaded guilty to being involved in schemes to make or receive millions of dollars in straw loans in the Asheville area following a federal investigation.
They are former Bank of Asheville President Gordon “Buddy” Greenwood, former Pisgah Community Bank officials Robert Craig Gourlay and David G. Smith, and Dimitris.
High-profile real estate investors Avery Ted “Buck” Cashion III and his wife Joan Lusk Cashion, Raymond M. “Ray” Chapman and Seven Falls developer Keith Arthur Vinson have been charged in the scheme.
Dimitris graduated from high school in New York in 1994 and studied theology at Beacon University in Georgia, according to court papers. He could not be reached for comment.
His C3 Church is a charismatic congregation affiliated with Christian City Church International.
C3 was founded by Phil and Chris Pringle in Australia. The organization has hundreds of affiliated churches worldwide and several in North Carolina.
– JON OSTENDORFF, Bellamy to give bank fraud player’s donation to charity, Money given by fraud convict, http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120420/NEWS/304200028/Bellamy-donates-tainted-funds?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage%7Cs&nclick_check=1, Citizen-Times, 20/04/2012. (Accessed 08/07/2012.)
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C3 Church Watch 
Sad for the congregation – this may be seen as a reflection on C3 but one man’s dishonesty should not be seen as a reflection on the church movement as a whole. The problem lies more in the background checks and qualifications of pastors generally. We see this sort of thing happening in all denominations.
When you look at their website, his name is still there – has he been replaced?
The administrators of this blog may find this rather funny (and sad) – an event held at C3 Asheville.
From their FB wall “Join over 50 other students and bring your prayer life full circle!
The Circle Maker Video Class by Mark Batterson >> Sunday mornings in March 9:30am at c3 Church Asheville 40 Haywood Street, downtown at The Haywood Park Promenade. Circle up”
This is as dangerous as any bank fraud scheme.
“Sad for the congregation – this may be seen as a reflection on C3 but one man’s dishonesty should not be seen as a reflection on the church movement as a whole.” Yes, very sad for the congregation and on the contrary, it should be seen as a reflection on the church movement as a whole. If it is a movement with accountability you’d think that this pastor would have been removed or stepped down. Obviously there is no real accountability or integrity in this movement. Unbelievable!
He didn’t go to prison, sentencing has not happened yet. He probably won’t and he hasn’t stepped down as senior pastor. While that whole situation sucks, so does your reporting. The headline saying he was jailed is not accurate
“He […] hasn’t stepped down as senior pastor.”
He’s not a “senior pastor” at all; he’s a fraud and a crook – so your characterisation of him is not accurate.
Maybe it’s a good thing that *you’re* not a reporter, don’t you think?
It’s a great thing I’m not a reporter Zorro. You must be the defender of all reporters, I dare not mess with you again.
C3 calls him a senior pastor.
Any normal person would think that this pastor, crook, fraud, whatever you want to call him should step down or be removed. Doesn’t look like this has happened so I for one cannot defend this guy or C3 in this situation. It seems pretty elementary to me that he should step down and the people in his church are dumb for not pressing the fact.
Where the hell is Asheville anyway? Off to the map…
I used to attend C3 Asheville, and most of this is true. Though Nick has not stepped down as senior pastor, his sentencing is apparently approaching within the coming months. The people who are in this church are mostly not aware that Nick Dimitris has done any wrong. He does not keep them informed, so they are merely blissfully ignorant. There have been many people trying to press the fact that he should step down as senior pastor to set a good example, but after months of perseverance, most of the people with the knowledge of his fraud have left the church, being replaced by people who have no earthly idea what is going on. Asheville is in North Carolina., by the way. C3 as a whole, is actually wonderful, even though they have a few churches that are duds, the ministry as a whole is amazing. Nick Dimitris is just a crook and has a horrible reputation – which is definitely deserved.
We have corrected the above title. Thanks for the correction.
I would like to suggest that the C3 “system” of extracting as much money as possible from the sheeple, fosters this type of activity in the article above.
If C3 is a money making franchise cult then it will attract these types of misguided “entrepreneurs”.
He is a crook, a liar, and a manipulator. He has a horrible reputation throughout the community. There have been attempts to get him to step down from ministry all together but, C3 chooses not to. He is still the senior pastor and continues to lie, cheat, and manipulate..
I don’t understand why a felon who plead guilty to fraud would still be a Pastor. Sure must not be a great testimony in their community when the Mayor of the town wont accept a donation from a felon preacher but C3 doesn’t have a problem with him leading a church. Something is terribly wrong with this picture. Am I missing something? I thought leaders in the church had to be above reproach and have a good reputation in the community. Doesn’t this kind of disqualify someone from being a pastor? At least until he can rebuild his life to be an honor to God.
This guy previously worked at a church in Clyde North Carolina and its clear whether in the business world or in his work as a pastor (which I don’t think he draws any distinction) or in his personal life he leaves a mess in his wake, regardless of what he touches. Just do a quick search of him in the NC and Federal court systems and you’ll be shocked at what you fine. Including a child abuse charge against his exwife. His exwife ended up marrying a member of the youth group she was a pastor of.
The child abuse charge was made from Nick to her in an attempt to shut her up. He was abusing her. She was not a pastor. Just married to one. Her husband was no kid from the youth group. He WORKED with the youth group and they were both in their twenties. The divorce was due to abuse. The local women’s shelter can prove that. Nick didn’t want the truth to come out in court, so he paid double money to get a quick, three month divorce out of Vegas. Then he turned around and quickly married some other poor girl. Get your facts straight! You sound like Nick with your lies,lies,lies…
And not many people know it but when he was away one weekend, the church in Clyde changed the locks on his office. He was fired from New Covenant and fired from the Rock of Asheville years later. He should have been fired by C3 as well.
So far all I have heard are all of you rushing quick to Judgement? why is it not in Gods heart to forgive and let someone repent as they keep their faith? why is it that a man is judged by one deed? You all should be ashamed of yourselves. the law is the law and it will take care of any illegalities. Man has conscrewed his way of judging one another and is not always just. but Gods love is Just and that is why a man is allowed to continue lifting his name. Get off your high horses and think about the last time you were pure through & through. I’ll bet you can’t remember when that might have been unless you are lying as well to yourselves.
He beat his wife Karl. I’m just saying…
Jesus warns us against wolves in sheeps clothing. He says that when they are before them He calls them lawless ones. It is interesting that when Nick Dimitris pled guilty to bank fraud, the money that the Democratic congressional candidate and Asheville and Mayor, Terry Bellamy, received from Dimitris was given to charity.
https://c3churchwatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/c3-asheville-scandal-c3-pastor-facing-prison/
The world knows that Dimitris acted as a ‘lawless one’. Jesus himself called false teachers as lawless ones. Yet you are defending a ‘lawless one’ who is considered to be a Godly man who holds the position of pastor?
It’s not quick judgment “karl”. Do you not know that HE pleaded guilty? We don’t have to judge. He did it. He pled guilty. There’s no issue. He received $260k in kickbacks within days of doing the deals with Vinson. It’s public record. It’s not slander. The only issue is whether he will get time or not. It’s already public record that he’s GUILTY!!!!!!
When public officials do things wrong, they step down. Why not Nicholas Dimitris? Karl, if you know Dimitris, ask around Asheville and see his reputation. You will see that it is not “ONE DEED”. It is many many deeds. It is many people who have lost retirement savings. It is many hard working people that didn’t get paid for the work they did on his houses or investments they made. Wake up. He’s a conman. He’s a very lovable conman. Open your eyes and look at the big picture.
People here are not on high horses, you sir, are blind. He can continue to lift God’s name but he should have stepped down. He didn’t step down because he has “loaned” C3 church $190k. Check the books. The near $200k that he got in tax returns and hid in a safe in a friends basement while telling everyone he owed money to that he was broke mostly got funneled through C3…again, check the books.
I’ve known him for a decade Karl but I know most of the people that left his church and they left for good reasons.