Congregants Of Church Whose Pastor (Allegedly!) Traded On Inside Information Obtained From Ukrainian Hackers Pretty Sure This Whole Thing Was A Set Up

Remember Vitaly Korchevesky? Pastor of the Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church? One of the five guys arrested in the U.S. last week on charges of being involved in a gigantic insider trading scam dreamed up by a bunch of Ukrainian hackers? Was almost freed on bail by one judge so he could go tend to some religious business abroad, until another was like, "Um, not so fast"? Anyway, those who've been attending his church for the last number of years are fairly certain he's innocent and just got caught up with the wrong crowd.

“Everyone who knows him (over 5,000 people), know that he was set up by his workers,” said one person, who requested anonymity. The feds claim that Korchevsky, 49, partnered with fellow Ukranian immigrant Arkadiy Dubovoy, 50, the alleged mastermind. E-mails between Korchevsky and others allegedly in the scheme discuss specifics of a scam, court papers charge.

And while he didn't get into specifics or corroborate the argument this whole thing was a set up, Korchevsky did get the word out that he's still cool with the big guy upstairs.

“I am fine, I am calm, and I know in my heart I am clean before the Lord,” Korchevsky wrote, according to a report on philly.com.

Church praises pastor arrested in $30M insider-trading ring [NYP]

Earlier: Pastor Who Traded On Inside Information* Obtained By Ukrainian Hackers** Just Wanted To Travel Abroad For Totally Legit Religious Purposes