BUNNELL — Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a former volunteer pastor at a Flagler Beach church who prosecutors allege swindled fellow parishioners and other residents out of nearly $400,000 by tricking them into investing in a Ponzi scheme.

Wesley Brown, 54, who faces 31 charges ranging from embezzlement and securities fraud to grand theft, sat in a courtroom inside the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center.

Attorneys selected a panel of seven jurors Monday and Tuesday’s proceedings began with opening arguments, which Brown’s attorney Philip Bonamo opted not to make.

During his address, Prosecutor Tim Pribisco told jurors he plans to use witness testimony, bank records and other financial documents to show that Brown told his victims he was investing their money in Maverick International Inc., a Delaware-based hedge fund company, but instead used the funds to pay credit card bills, shop at Walmart, and eat at restaurants.

“Lying and stealing is what this case is about,” Pribisco said. “The evidence in this case is going to show you that Maverick International was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme … (Brown) gained the trust and friendship of the people at these churches. The evidence is going to show that the people that trusted him, the people that respected him, he stole from them.”

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office filed charges against Brown in October 2013, and authorities nabbed him in Calabash, North Carolina, on a fugitive warrant in July 2014. Arrest affidavits allege his crimes occurred in Flagler County between December 2010 and June 2012.

(READ: Ex-pastor in Flagler Beach charged in fraud scheme)

Pribisco told jurors Brown’s ploy was part of “an ongoing, systematic scheme to defraud,” which authorities have said allowed him to swindle more than $395,000 from local residents and fellow parishioners at two Flagler County churches that he regularly attended.

A federal lawsuit that Brown and his brother-in-law Edward Rubin settled with the U.S. Commodity Trading Commission in April 2016 indicated the two men begin defrauding victims as early as June 2008.

Arrest records show Brown led Bible studies at Calvary Chapel Flagler Beach, which has shuttered since Brown’s arrest in July 2014, and occasionally took the pulpit to lead services as a volunteer pastor. According to the prosecutor, the church served as ground zero for Brown to lure many of his victims, convincing them to invest thousands of dollars into Maverick in the form of securities sold as shares in the company.

One of Brown’s victims was a School Board employee who considered him a friend and went shooting at gun ranges with him and his wife. Pribisco said she gave him $200,000 from a family inheritance to invest into stocks in two companies.

Another was a former associate pastor at Calvary Chapel who said he studied the Bible with Brown. Pribisco said he gave Brown $5,500, which went into Brown’s personal bank account. The following day, Brown paid his credit card bills, Pribisco said.

A third victim was a retired New York City firefighter who gave Brown more than $100,000, all of which Pribisco said Brown misappropriated. Perhaps the most shocking allegation involved a local postal worker who gave Brown $85,000 to invest in Maverick at a time when his wife was dying from cancer. Pribisco said Brown prayed for the man’s wife at church.

“All the while, he deposited money into his personal bank account that was for the purpose of purchasing Maverick stock,” Pribisco said. “He withdrew cash and he went to Walmart.”

The trial is expected to continue through Thursday.