Minister Hit With $5.2M Fine

The Rev. Henry Lyons, once the powerful leader of one of the nation's largest black church groups, was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution today for bank fraud and tax-evasion.

The 57-year-old minister, already serving 5 1/2 years in state prison for bilking companies and stealing from charities, also was sentenced to four years and three months. But the federal sentence will be served concurrently with the state sentence, U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. said.

Â"I do ask for mercy today,Â" Lyons told the judge before sentencing. Â"I'm 57. I don't have a lot of time to right all the wrong I have done. Time is not on my side. I need to do at least 100 good deeds for every bad deed.Â"

Lyons pleaded guilty March 17 to five counts growing out of his business dealings as head of the Baptist group.

He admitted failing to pay taxes on $1.3 million in income, defrauding a bank and making false statements to a financial institution and to federal housing officials. In return, federal prosecutors dropped 49 other charges, including extortion, conspiracy and money laundering.

Lyons was sentenced in state court after he was convicted in February of racketeering and grand theft for bilking nearly $4 million from corporations seeking business with the convention and stealing nearly $250,000 donated by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith for burned black churches in the South.

Lyons said he agonizes Â"over my handling of ADL, the crime that has been committed there. That simply won't go away. It tugs at me.Â"

Lyons began his state sentence April 1 at Lowell Correctional Institution about nine miles north of Ocala.

Â"I question myself day in and day out,Â" Lyons told the judge. Â"How did I come to be here? What did I do? What took me off the path that I traveled for so many years? What happened to Henry Lyons? ... I brought this on myself.Â"

Adams waived a fine that could have ranged from $10,000 to $2 million. The judge said he knew Lyons would be unable to pay since he already has forfeited his assets and properties and faced the hefty restitution.

Â"He's reading the Bible and reading prayer every day ... trying to find peace for himself,Â" Lyons' attorney, Jeff Brown, said earlier. Separation from his family has taken its toll, he said.

Lyons' wife, Deborah, must apply for special authorization to visit her husband since she is on probation for a 1997 arson that sparked the probe into Lyons' finances.

The couple has not applied for the special visitation because Lyons does not want to Â"draw any more attention to himself,Â" Brown said.