Pastor Accused of Bank Heists to Pay for Sex
DETROIT — A minister at a church in the affluent Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills is charged of committing a string of bank robberies, reportedly so he could pay prostitutes and call girls for sex.
The Rev. Roy Alan Yanke, pastor of Covenant Alliance Church, was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court on two counts of unarmed bank robbery.
FBI agents said Yanke, 37, of Berkley, robbed two banks Wednesday--the Huntington Bank in Warren of $1,050 and the Manufacturers National Bank in Bloomfield Township of $1,350.
According to an FBI affidavit, Yanke confessed to having robbed 14 banks in Oakland, Washtenaw, Macomb and Wayne counties, including the Sept. 13, 1989, stickup of a Comerica Bank branch just a few blocks from his church.
The minister reportedly told police he used the money--about $50,000 in all--to satisfy his “tremendous appetite for sex.”
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