How a Miami church that became a GOP campaign stop got wrapped into a messy divorce
The booming business of Miami pastor Guillermo Maldonado, which helps him pay for what court records describe as a half-dozen properties, at least three cars and a nine-seat jet, depends entirely on whether he can speak to God.
The head of King Jesus International Ministry has built such a devout following in his 25 years at the bilingual evangelical church that when he tells his congregation that “communism is the anti-Christ” and invites President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians to his pulpit to reach thousands of Miami’s fervent Hispanic voters, his supporters will trust it is a divine message.
“I pray for him to defy and to challenge giants in the world, and defy and challenge enemies in this nation,” Maldonado said on Jan. 3, 2020, as he blessed then-President Trump at an “Evangelicals for Trump” event.
But despite Maldonado’s public triumphs in matters of politics and faith, the charismatic pastor has been locked in a private, six-month battle with his wife and former senior pastor at the church, Ana Maldonado. She says in court papers that he was emotionally and verbally abusive to her and that she has reason to believe he is illegally profiting from the megachurch. Now, after 32 years of marriage, they are both using their individual pulpits to preach their case to the public.
According to Miami-Dade County court records reviewed by the Miami Herald, the Maldonados have been fighting since August over a marital estate that Ana Maldonado claims to know little about. In a preliminary financial affidavit, she says the couple own a “possible boat,” valued at an unknown amount. She says she thinks there might be assets in Italy, Honduras and Colombia but says she does not know the full extent of her husband’s net worth or how much money he has transferred out of the country. In the initial divorce petition, her attorneys said there could be as much as $120 million at stake.
A Miami-Dade judge overseeing the divorce ordered the bulk of the couple’s financial information sealed.
In court documents, Ana Maldonado — who is asking for the main marital home, attorneys’ fees and an “equitable” distribution of their assets — claims her husband pressured her to sign financial documents, kept financial information hidden from her, removed her from marital funds and prevented her from speaking to their two adult sons.
Attorneys for Guillermo Maldonado have denied most of Ana Maldonado’s allegations, including her petition for information on the main properties. Lawyers say they are no longer in the couple’s name, a change that Ana Maldonado says she was forced to make under duress. The properties were transferred in January 2020 to their son Ronald Maldonado, the husband’s attorneys say, and he is now the owner of the marital home and their property in Sunny Isles Beach.
“She bizarrely and falsely alleges in her amended petition that she is estranged from both of her sons, and that Ronald is ‘unaware of these transfers being in his own name,’ ” Kathleen Phang, Guillermo Maldonado’s lawyer, wrote in a court filing. “However, she and Ronald currently live together under the same roof, so she could simply ask Ronald about the transfers, but she does not do so.”
Preaching his point of view
Publicly, Maldonado opted to use faith to convince his congregation of his side of the story.
In a video statement last November that was posted to the church’s website, the pastor said that he waited to say anything about the divorce because he was praying and hoping they could have a reconciliation. He then said that any allegations about abuse or infidelity are false and are being spread as an attempt to ruin his reputation and his church.
“If you have a question about me or about my family in the ministry, ask the Holy Spirit,” Guillermo Maldonado said. “If you are listening to the voice of the Spirit, the Spirit knows what is in my heart... No weapon used against me will prosper.”
Attorneys for Guillermo and Ana Maldonado did not respond to a request for comment. Attempts to reach the couple for this story were also unsuccessful.
As well known as Guillermo Maldonado has become in South Florida and abroad, his profile has grown even further because he hasn’t shied from an opportunity to be in the political spotlight. The Miami visit from Trump a year ago was preceded by Maldonado’s own visit to the White House in 2019. Maldonado, a registered Republican, has for years used his platform to push his politics, including downplaying the coronavirus when large gatherings were forced to shut down last year.
Even through the divorce, the church was a campaign stop for former county mayor Carlos Gimenez, now a Republican congressman from Miami, who attended a Sunday service in late September. He told the non-denominational congregation that “there’s a very important election in our country,” and “I have the same principles you do” — stopping short of asking for their vote.
And the ex-president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is rumored to be exploring higher office in Florida after buying a $32 million plot of land in Indian Creek Village, spent a few hours on Dec. 22 handing out food boxes to local residents on the church’s property as part of a wider effort to tout a federal Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
At the crux of the divorce fight, however, is whether the Miami megachurch that Ana Maldonado claims to have been cast out from is violating what’s known as the “Inurement Prohibition,” an IRS rule that forbids board members, trustees and other key employees at 501(c)(3) organizations from directly profiting from the charity.
“[W]hether [the church] is compliant with the law... is exactly what Wife is asking this court to adjudicate,” Christina Echeverri, one of Ana Maldonados’ lawyers, wrote in a court filing, adding that Ana Maldonado “has reason to believe that the church” is misusing funds.
A lawyer for the ministry, which is a third-party defendant in the case because Ana Maldonado’s attorneys claim her husband is “inextricably intertwined” with the church, wrote in court documents that although Guillermo Maldonado is “reasonably compensated for his services,” the fact that they have to legally comply with the rule should be enough to leave the church out of the courtroom.
The church said in a statement through its lawyers that King Jesus International Ministry has controls to make sure its disbursements are in line with its status as a nonprofit organization, including a voluntary audit from an independent public accounting firm that it submits to annually.
“Any accusations that it has knowingly engaged in private inurement transactions are false and irresponsible,” the statement said. “In 2020, alone, it gave away over 21 million pounds of food, almost 92,000 meals and over $780,000 in direct financial assistance to over 64,000 households and 53 churches and organizations.”
Evangelizing Miami’s Hispanics
Meanwhile, Ana Maldonado, who calls herself a “Prophet,” has created her own rival church, Tabernáculo de su Presencia a las Naciones, and streams her services on Facebook. During the pandemic, she has been using conference rooms at the DoubleTree by Hilton Convention Center, and has recently boasted a congregation that can fill a room for 400 people. (Some attendees visible in online recordings of services do not wear masks.)
Andres Brizuela, the marketing manager at King Jesus International Ministry, said in an affidavit Ana Maldonado has not been formally employed by the church since Dec. 2019. He further attested that she has “wrongfully” tried to access verified social media accounts under her name. Brizuela argues the accounts belong to the church.
The financial stakes may seem high for Guillermo Maldonado, as some loyal followers have said on social media that they feel divided by the public divorce of the two religious leaders. Some have even commented on his church livestreams saying they are on Ana Maldonado’s side and have opted to follow her new venture instead. But the split has hardly made a dent in weekly attendance at King Jesus International Ministry, where the weekly congregation can swell to 20,000, making it one of the largest and fastest-growing Hispanic megachurches in the country, comparable in size to Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale.
It holds services in English and Spanish, in person and online, lasting up to three hours during the Sunday services. The church has over 280 employees and 48 independent contractors, records show.
According to Ana Maldonado’s financial affidavit, the Maldonados have a home in southwest Miami-Dade, a property in Sunny Isles Beach and another in Treasure Cay, in The Bahamas. They also have a property in Opa-locka and another one in Hialeah. Together, the couple also owns a 2020 Mercedes, a Lexus LX and a Falcon 50 business jet, which is registered in Florida under the church’s name.
Court records describe how the church was founded by the Maldonados in 1995, when they held their first few services in the living room of their home, with just a dozen attendees they knew. Now, King Jesus has 300 partners across the country and operates at least two orphanages, in Colombia and Honduras.
That international reach is why Ana Maldonado, through her attorneys, accused her ex-husband last fall of using his powerful pulpit to turn the ministry against her by repeatedly referring to the divorce publicly. In one example, on Sept. 27, Guillermo Maldonado told his congregation that he had spoken to God, who had assured him he was on his side.
“My people, I can have your support, I can have all of this money, I can have this church bursting at the seams, full. But if I don’t have the presence [of God]... why even have a church?” Maldonado said. “And God told me, ‘The highest endorsement I have given you all this time is my presence.’ ”
The estranged couple’s mission to evangelize Miami’s poor and needy turned their church into a stadium-sized temple, where the power of testimonies drive the desire to pay for miracles — from drinking and immigration problems that suddenly disappear to broken marriages that are restored through divine intervention. As the divorce case churns on, Ana Maldonado continues to grow her new Miami church, employing tactics similar to Guillermo Maldonado’s in order to collect tithes and fund-raise.
Last November, Ana Maldonado told her congregation in a badly lit hotel conference room that God informed her through an intermediary that her mission in life was to bring him money for human souls to enter heaven.
“I said, ‘Lord, but where do I get that money?’ ” Ana Maldonado told her audience, kneeling on the carpeted floor as an interpreter translated her words simultaneously into English. “Tithes are the taxes of the heavens... The Bible says to me that I have to take my money to heaven. And if God asks me to do something, I will do it.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
