{"id":5648,"date":"2015-08-15T00:46:39","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T21:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2018-07-12T08:50:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T05:50:43","slug":"slavic-pastor-vitaly-korchevsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/slavic-pastor-vitaly-korchevsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Slavic Pastor Vitaly Korchevsky Arrested for Stealing Millions in a Hacking Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pictures of Pastor Vitaly Korchevsky in handcuffs being escorted by a FBI agent as he was arrested this week shocked much in the Christian Slavic world. He is alleged of taking part in an elaborate scheme which involved Ukrainian and Russian hackers and resulted in around 100 million in stolen profits from large companies.<\/p>\n

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Update: July 2018 Pastor Vitaly was convicted on all counts\u00a0including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, computer intrusion and money laundering to two securities fraud charges. He was convicted of pocketing at least $14 million from 2011 to 2015 by trading securities on information he gleaned from earnings reports and other market-moving announcements stolen by Ukrainian hackers before they were released publicly.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Pastor Vitaly Korchevsky being led away in handcuffs after he was arrested this week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Vitaly a pastor of a Slavic Baptist Church in Brookhaven, PA and had once served as the chairman of the US Association of Slavic Baptist Churches is a man respected by thousands and is often invited to speak at conferences on the topic of finances.<\/p>\n

In fact in a recent financial seminar<\/a> he said, “The question of finances is really a questions of honesty in two areas before God and others.”<\/p>\n

What happened to this man? Who is he really? Was he ever really a good pastor or was he only hiding behind the facade of a minister so that no one would know what a thief he truly was?<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t answer these questions for Vitaly Korchevsky, only God knows exactly what\u2019s going on in his heart and only the FBI knows exactly whether\u00a0he stole millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

There are, however, some bigger questions that these unfortunate events raise. The bigger question we must ask ourselves and do our best to answer is this:<\/p>\n

Why do ministry leaders fall into sin?<\/h2>\n

This is not the first time and I think it\u2019s safe to say, it\u2019s not the last time that a high-profile ministry leader will fall to the dismay and shock of the church.<\/p>\n

Of course it is always more shocking when a well-known and respected leader falls, but the truth is that all ministry leaders despite the scope of their ministry are prone to fall. \u00a0The same temptations, lack of safeguards, and spiritual laziness that may have led to Korchevsky\u2019s alleged crime are all the same problems that can appear in your heart or mine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to share with you a few observations that may help us understand why men and women in ministry sometimes fall.<\/p>\n

Position can give a false sense of immunity from sin.<\/h2>\n

Positions of authority can be dangerous things in the church. We attach so much expectation, to those who hold important positions in the Christian world, we make them celebrities we invite them to speak at our prestigious events, we ask to have our photo taken with them after conferences, we watch them on YouTube and compare our unknown and untrained preachers to their amazing skills of elocution and theological acumen.<\/p>\n

We expect our celebrity preachers to give us all the answers, to make our lives better, we want to be like them!<\/p>\n

But we often fail to realize that they struggle with the same every day sins that we struggle with. We think that someone in their position must not have temptations of lust, anger, or greed. We think that they have arrived, that they are as close as you can get to a modern day Messiah.<\/p>\n

Yes, we all know that kind of thinking is wrong, yet somewhere down in our heart we tend to feel that way, even if we don\u2019t say it! The problem here is that when enough people tell you how amazing you are, how much you\u2019ve blessed their life, how they want to be like you, etc…<\/p>\n