The United States’ Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Saturday, December 9, that it has imposed sanctions on several individuals, including Filipino pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who claims to be “The Appointed Son of God.”
The sanctions were issued against over 40 individuals and entities that are “connected to corruption or human rights abuse across nine countries” on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day and Human Rights Day,” according to the department’s announcement.
Quiboloy, who is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted list, has been sanctioned for alleged corruption and “serious human rights abuse,” including “a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape of girls as young as 11 years old.”
The US Treasury sanctioned the pastor, who once claimed to be “The Owner of the Universe,” pursuant to Executive Order No. 13818, which freezes US-based assets of people “responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse,” among other reasons.
The executive order also blocks the entry of those designated into the US and prohibits donations for their benefit.
In 1985, Quiboloy founded The Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name church in the Philippines. In 2021, a US federal indictment alleged Quiboloy was involved in sex trafficking “pastorals” — young women within the KOJC selected to work as personal assistants for Quiboloy.
Pastorals were allegedly directed to have “night duty,” which required them to have sexual intercourse with Quiboloy on a determined schedule. Quiboloy kept pastorals in various countries, including the Philippines and the United States, according to the US Treasury report.
It said that Quiboloy “exploited his role” within his church “to rape his victims and subject them to other physical abuse, describing these acts as sacrifices required by the Bible and by God for the victims’ salvation.”
The report added that the “pastorals,” who were mostly minors, were told by the pastor to “offer your body as a living sacrifice.”
One female reported she lost count of the number of times she was forced to have sex with Quiboloy, as it was at least once a week even when she was a minor and in every country to which they traveled.
Another woman reported she was forced to perform “night duty” at least 1,000 times.
The same allegations are also contained in an earlier federal indictment of Quiboloy and two other officials of his religious group for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.
The pastor’s lawyers said over Quiboloy’s television network SMNI that the allegations against the preacher are baseless and accused the US government of violating his right to due process.
“They’ve already convicted him!” said Hawaii-based lawyer Michael Green of the sanctions imposed on Quiboloy.
“This press release, this document, frankly is outrageous, it’s simple grandstanding, it’s utter politics by the United States government,” said Manny Medrano, another lawyer based in Los Angeles.
Ferdinand Topacio, one of the pastor’s lawyers in Manila, questioned the timing of the release of the information on the indictment.
