Reporting the Truth.
Restoring the Church
By Barry Bowen
Corporate filings from Daystar and a Florida nonprofit list dead pastors and board members as active officers, raising legal questions about fraudulent paperwork. (RR Graphic)
Televangelist Marcus Lamb of the Daystar TV Network died in 2021. His parents died a decade before.
But they were all listed as board members or registered agents in 2024 corporate paperwork that Daystar affiliate WPXS Inc. filed with Texas Secretary of State.
Corporate filings, which include articles of incorporation and annual reports that disclose board members, reveal the power structure of both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations.
These types of documents, along with an IRS Form 990, can show whether an independent board approves executive compensation.
Articles of incorporation sometimes disclose whether church members have the power to remove a corrupt pastor, for example, or if that role is reserved for the board of directors..
On Nov. 30, 2021, televangelist and anti-vaccine advocate Marcus Lamb died following a weeks-long hospitalization for COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of Daystar TV)
While corporate filings may contain typos and minor human errors, some of these filings raise red flags because they appear to include fraudulent information or display gross incompetence.
‘Went to be with the Lord’
Almost 2.5 years after Daystar TV founder Marcus Lamb died, Daystar affiliate WPXS, Inc. submitted a 2024 public information report to the Texas Secretary of State, listing Lamb as registered agent of the corporation.
On that same report, WPXS, Inc. listed Corinne Lamb, Marcus’ mother, and Jimmie Lamb, Marcus’ father, as board members. Both died more than a decade earlier.
Dignity Memorial reports that Corinne Lamb “went to be with the Lord on Friday, February 15, 2012.” Find a Grave reports that Jimmie Lamb died in 2010.
WPXS did not reply to an email from Roys Report (RR) requesting an explanation.
WPXS is the call letters of Daystar’s Illinois TV station. WPXS, Inc., which does not file Form 990s, provided loans to the families of Joni Lamb’s two daughters Rachel Brown and Rebecca Weiss in the amounts of $550,000 and $780,000.
Texas law prohibits materially false filings
The practice of listing dead people as officers and registered agents on corporate filings raises an important question: Is this a criminal act?
According to the Texas Secretary of State website, “A person commits an offense under Section 4.008 of the (Business Organizations Code) if the person signs or directs the filing of a filing instrument the person knows is materially false with the intent that the instrument be delivered to the Secretary of State for filing. The offense is a Class A misdemeanor unless the person’s intent is to harm or defraud another, in which case the offense is a state jail felony.”
David A. Schueller, CPA, who provides accounting services for Daystar, signed and submitted the questionable WPXS, Inc. 2024 public information report.
Texas requires corporations to have a minimum of three board members and at least two officers because the president of a corporation is prohibited from serving as the corporate secretary.
When board members die, as in the case of WPXS, Inc., a board meeting should be held to nominate and vote on the approval of new board members, so the corporation maintains the state-required minimum number of board members.
In 2025, Joni Lamb submitted a document replacing Marcus Lamb as registered agent with Daystar CFO Arnold Torres. However, the document did not disclose any new board members, so it is unknown if WPXS, Inc. is compliant with Texas law.
While Texas doesn’t require nonprofit corporations to submit annual reports disclosing the names of new board members, the filing of updates should be considered the best practice as it demonstrates corporate transparency.
Florida nonprofit lists deceased pastor
Daystar does not appear to be the only nonprofit with dead people on its board. In a separate case, the National Center for Faith-Based Initiative in Florida also listed someone who is deceased in its corporate filings.
Last year, Redemptive Life Palm Beach pastor Harold Calvin Ray died. Ray was a prominent Black pastor, serving as a board member of the American Center for Law and Justice and guest hosting for Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
As pastor of Redemptive Life Palm Beach, Ray espoused Word of Faith theology. His widow, Brenda Ray, now leads the small congregation and Manasseh Jordan, the son of pastor Bernard Jordan, regularly preaches to the West Palm Beach church.
Manasseh Jordan was sued in 2016 for allegedly illegally soliciting funds through aggressive robocalling.Harold Ray, pastor of Redemptive Life Palm Beach interviewing, David Taylor. (Screen grab)
Harold Ray also served as president of the National Center for Faith-Based Initiative. The organization’s April 28, 2025 filing, submitted to the Florida Secretary of State a week before Ray died, listed only two board members: Harold Ray and Earl Hamilton.
At the end of 2025, West Palm Beach attorney Elaine James, a former Planned Parenthood board member, submitted amended articles of incorporation for the National Center for Faith-Based Initiative. The amendment removed Ray and Hamilton from the board while adding four new board members, including Ray’s widow Brenda Ray and son Christopher Ray.
However, five weeks after James’ filing, Hamilton submitted a new annual report, listing himself and the deceased Harold Ray as board members.
Ray’s digital signature appears on the document even though he is dead.
No answers
These filings raise numerous questions: Who signed Harold Ray’s name? Who had legal standing to remove Hamilton from the board of directors? If there was no legal standing to remove Hamilton, did attorney Elaine James commit fraud when submitting the 2025 amended articles? Did the new board notify Hamilton that he was removed from the board? If so, did Hamilton commit fraud when filing the 2026 annual report?2026 annual report for the National Center for Faith-Based Initiative. (Screen grab)
The National Center for Faith-Based Initiative did not respond to an email from RR asking for an explanation.
While it is a crime to file fraudulent documents, the Florida Department of State does not investigate fraudulent filings.
The Florida Department of State website reports, “It is a third degree felony for a party to file a fraudulent document on the records of the Florida Department of State … All disputes and fraudulent filing activity must be resolved between the affected parties or in the courts.”
In 2015, the IRS revoked the tax-exemption of the National Center for Faith Based Initiative after the nonprofit failed to file the Form 990 nonprofit information return for three consecutive years.
Mark Kellner contributed to this report.
This article was originally published by Trinity Foundation.
Barry Bowen is a staff member of Trinity Foundation, a public nonprofit based in Dallas, Texas that has been tracking religious fraud and helping victims for over 30 years.
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