Former Follower's Guilty Plea in Marriage Fraud Bolsters US Case Against Quiboloy

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Who is Maria de Leon, the septuagenarian who was sentenced for her role in an immigration fraud scheme that helped members of doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy‘s group remain in the United States? On Tuesday, August 4, a US federal judge sentenced the 77-year-old Los Angeles-based paralegal to time she already served, crediting the roughly four months she spent in custody after her 2021 arrest. She posted bail after her arrest. It was her guilty plea that gave US prosecutors a vital insider’s account of how followers of Quiboloy allegedly manipulated the American immigration system. Must Read US requested Apollo Quiboloy’s extradition in 2025. Whatever happened to this? For years, De Leon’s work unfolded not from the pulpit of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) but through paperwork. A former Quiboloy follower told Rappler on Friday, August 7, that De Leon was an “outsider” to the KOJC and that her dealings with the detained preacher’s group were limited to handling its immigration paperwork. She is known in the KOJC as “Liberty,” the name of her firm. Through her firm, Liberty Legal Document Services, prosecutors said she prepared immigration filings that helped KOJC members stay in the US, allowing them to continue soliciting donations for what authorities described as a bogus charity. Her admissions would later substantiate one of the central mechanisms of the US government’s case against Quiboloy. In 2022, De Leon agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy, admitting she knowingly prepared and filed immigration petitions based on sham marriages, arranged solely to obtain legal status for KOJC members. According to court records, the paralegal participated in an eight-year conspiracy with Quiboloy’s subordinates to secure permanent residency and, ultimately, US citizenship for church workers who otherwise could not lawfully remain in the country. In her plea agreement, she acknowledged that the immigration applications were “based upon false representations of the bona fides of the underlying marriages.” Federal prosecutors said the immigration scheme supported a wider trafficking operation detailed in a 74-page indictment unsealed in November 2021. Weeks later, Quiboloy and two other of his associates were placed in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of wanted people. The Quiboloy church workers brought to the US on fraudulently obtained visas were allegedly dispatched across the country to solicit donations for the Children’s Joy Foundation, which authorities described as a bogus charity used to finance KOJC operations and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders. The same indictment charged Quiboloy and seven associates in an alleged sex trafficking conspiracy, accusing KOJC leaders of coercing girls and young women into sexual relationships with the Davao-based religious leader through threats of “eternal damnation” and other forms of psychological coercion. De Leon was not accused of participating in the alleged sexual abuse but was charged as part of the broader conspiracy. Quiboloy and several of his associates have been detained in the Philippines due of a trafficking case before a Pasig City court and child sexual abuse cases before a Quezon City court. The US has sought Quiboloy’s extradition, and the Philippine foreign affairs department said it endorsed the request to the justice department. Quiboloy is closely associated with detained former president Rodrigo Duterte — they are known to be close friends and the preacher served as presidential adviser during the previous administration. – Rappler.com