Los Angeles – Twenty-two survivors of a decade-long sexual abuse campaign in Romania have filed a consolidated federal complaint alleging that a sophisticated “cover-up machine” was operated by Harvest Christian Fellowship and its celebrity pastor, Greg Laurie. The filing (Case 5:25-cv-02428-SSS-SP) details how the California-based megachurch allegedly utilized internal surveillance, financial payoffs, and purged records to hide child sexual abuse in its international operations.
The complaint tracks the harrowing abuse carried out by former pastor Paul Havsgaard in the Romanian children’s homes he was sent to run and adds fresh detail on a broader institutional conspiracy at the church’s Riverside, California headquarters.
Key new allegations in the complaint include:
- Evidence Scrubbing: In 2018, the same year that Laurie praised sex offender Havsgaard’s work in Romania and likened him to Moses, Harvest leadership allegedly purged its digital archives and video library to remove all evidence of Havsgaard’s extensive fundraising and ministry work.
- Pattern of Hush Money: The complaint alleges a systemic practice of buying silence, including a reported $4 million payoff to a senior pastor to ensure a “quiet departure” following multiple affairs with married women.
- Internal Surveillance: Former employees report the use of covert audio and video surveillance throughout the Riverside campus to identify and silence potential troublemakers and whistleblowers.
- “Soft Landing” for Sex Abusers: Despite receiving definitive proof of Havsgaard’s pedophilia in 2004, the consolidated complaint alleges that Harvest leadership abdicated their fiduciary and moral responsibility by allowing him to remain in his position for four more years to avoid a fundraising scandal, and then to return to a place of honor in the Calvary network of churches in California, including a $200,000 severance payment.
- False fundraising: Harvest continued to accept donations earmarked for the Romanian homes despite knowing they had been closed.
The consolidated complaint contends that these are not isolated incidents but part of a documented pattern of institutional failure. This includes similar reports of physical and sexual abuse at U-Turn for Christ, a Calvary Chapel boot camp in Mexico that Harvest recommended to its congregation. The camp was later shut down by police. Similarly, the consolidated complaint alleges physical abuse took place at a summer camp in California, about which Harvest remained silent.
“Havsgaard may be one of the most prolific child abusers alive in America today,” said Plaintiffs’ lead counsel Dr. Ann Olivarius. “Yet Harvest and Laurie knowingly suppressed the scandal rather than clean it up. Our clients have been treated as collateral damage to protect a national brand.”
The lawsuits seek damages for multiple forms of negligence committed by defendants in California in supervising and operating the children’s homes, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sex trafficking and conspiracy.
Continue reading more on this case.
In light of the complex and disturbing allegations in the complaints, McAllister Olivarius seeks additional information from anyone who can shed light on:
- possible misconduct by Paul Havsgaard before he left for Romania in 1998 or after his return to California in 2008;
- the operation of the Harvest Homes in Romania between 1998 and 2008;
- the decision making at Harvest Christian Fellowship concerning the supervision of Havsgaard and the operation of the Harvest Homes.
For Media Inquiries:
Eva Hoier Greene
E: egreene@mcolaw.com
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