Three pastors of a nondenominational church in Randolph used members' donations and proceeds from selling the $5 million church building to buy a $1.6 million mansion in Mendham Township, a $450,000 schooner in Jersey City and life-coaching classes, state officials said today.

Eric Simons, the pastor of Church Alive, also paid himself an annual salary of between $70,000 and $90,000, state officials said. Simons, his wife and the church's associate pastor, Marianne Simons, and assistant pastor Philip DuPlessis, also gave themselves a total of $150,000 in honorariums for personal use, officials said.

"It pretty clearly shows you that greed was at play," state Division of Consumer Affairs director David Szuchman said today at a press conference in front of the Mendham home.

In a settlement reached with the state, the Simonses and DuPlessis will pay back $2.5 million to the congregation and nearly $61,000 to the state to reimburse it for the cost of the investigation. They also must immediately resign as church board members, Szuchman said. They still serve as church pastors.

State officials additionally assigned a fiscal monitor to take control of the church's finances and have referred fraud allegations about the three pastors to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. Robert Bianchi, the county prosecutor, said his office would consider charges.

Half a dozen of the church's 75 members attended today's press conference and were glad the state had reached a settlement with the pastors. They said they had donated the money for church improvements and to aid the poor. All three pastors, they said, should be charged with crimes.

"What breaks my heart is that children were going to bed with no food, and he would live in a house like this," said Maria Palumbo of Wharton, who was a member of the church for 13 years, and in that time, donated $90,000. "If I had known that this was what my money was going toward, I wouldn't have given a dime."

In addition to the reimbursements, the settlement requires the church to appoint a new board within 30 days, Szuchman said. The board will determine any sales prospects for the Mendham mansion, where the Simonses still reside.

DuPlessis must turn over the title and registration of the schooner, where he and his wife, Sharon, live, to the church. Sharon DuPlessis was an assistant pastor at the church, but she is not part of the settlement, state officials said.

The church's board also must hire a financial adviser to examine the books to uncover what happened to the rest of the $5 million from the sale of the church building at 791 Route 10 East, officials said.

Philip DuPlessis said he and the Simonses did nothing wrong.

"We believe it's an injustice," DuPlessis said about the settlement. "We've been good stewards of our finances, and we have every penny accounted for."

DuPlessis said they were "forced" to sell the church building because they were unable to pay the $10,000-per-month mortgage. From the sale of the church, DuPlessis said, "there were some proceeds in which we invested."

One of the investments was the "parsonage" in Mendham, at which he said youth, women's and prayer groups, as well as ministry, are held several times a week.

DuPlessis said he "never" used church funds for personal use, "besides obvious compensation and salary." The schooner, he said, was a "leadership development platform" used by inner-city youth.

"We are passionate about personal life transformation of leaders," DuPlessis said.

In a statement, Simons said, "What these people meant for our destruction, God utilized it for our good in strengthening our church, galvanizing the members and creating the landing strip for a better and brighter future."

The investigation into the church's funds began in May 2008 after church members realized the pastors had bought the Mendham home and the schooner, said Jeff Lamm, a state consumer affairs spokesman.

The three pastors, who had come to the congregation in 1999, had disbanded the church's board, giving themselves full control of church funds, officials said. State officials are uncertain how much money was donated into the building fund, but they said most of the donations were made by seven couples and one individual.

The state investigation revealed Marianne Simons, a Realtor for Weichert, put the church building on the market and took a commission on the $5 million sale in May 2008. The building was owned by the not-for-profit Church Alive Inc., state officials said. The DuPlessises rented out the sailboat to corporations as part of Philip DuPlessis' for-profit business at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, state officials and church members said.

Simons also spent about $40,000 on life-coaching classes and a life-coaching license he uses to operate his for-profit life-coaching business. Church Alive holds the license, officials said.

Bible Church International continues to lease space to Church Alive for its Sunday worship services, said Larry Biondo, a chief investigator at consumer affairs. Those services are still lead by Eric Simons and Philip DuPlessis.

"Our roles as pastors is a God-given calling, and the state attorney general cannot take that away from us," DuPlessis said.



Information on the charitable organizations are available at state.nj.us/lps/ca/charity/chardir.htm, as well as through The Star-Ledger's Helping Hands blog. Consumers also can call the Charitable Registration Hotline at 973-504-6215. Religious organizations must comply with state laws governing charities and nonprofit corporation, but do not have to register.