Judge orders couple to pay nearly $1M to defrauded gift shop partner

A federal judge has awarded nearly $1 million to a Canadian man who claimed that his partners took away his business of selling gifts to Jehovah’s Witnesses in Pine Bush, Orange County.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas ruled on Aug. 14, following a four-day bench trial, that Thomas and Nanci Matos and BestLife Gifts had to pay Greg Holland $980,447. He declared that the one-page agreement that Holland signed in 2018 handing off business assets to the Matoses was “void because of fraud.”

The business relationship had been forged by Holland’s and the Matoses’ shared faith and trust in one-another as Jehovah’s Witnesses, according to court records, and sundered by a scandal that made Holland an outcast amongst his fellow religionists.

Holland founded Ministry Ideaz in 2002 as an online business based in Ecuador, where he was “pioneering,” or evangelizing, for his religion. He sold Bible covers, notebooks, calendars and other products primarily to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In 2017, he decided to open a brick and mortar store near the Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters in Warwick, Orange County.

A mutual friend introduced him to the Matoses, who lived in Pine Bush about 26 mile from the headquarters. Thomas Matos, a carpenter by trade, was a ministerial servant, or administrator, for his local congregation. Nanci Matos was a pioneer and had worked as a cake decorator.

The gift shop opened in May 2017 in the Valley Supreme Plaza in Pine Bush and quickly became successful.

Later that year, Holland was hospitalized in a coma for several days in Ecuador, according to a court affidavit he filed, “following a drug overdose during an extramarital affair.”

Around January 2018, he was disfellowshipped, a severe form of discipline that Jehovah’s Witnesses reserve for persistent, unrepentant behavior  that violates their teachings. Observants of the faith are required to shun disfellowshipped members and keep business and professional contacts to a bare minimum.

In Holland’s telling, the Matoses used his transgressions as a wedge to undermine his marriage and seize control of the business.

Holland signed a one-page agreement drafted by Thomas Matos to dissolve Ministry Ideaz and allow the couple to keep the inventory. Then the couple formed BestLife Gifts and rebranded the gift shop.

Holland sued them in 2018 in White Plains federal court for $300,000, claiming that he was coerced and alleging that Thomas Matos had threatened to reveal his marital problems to customers unless he signed the deal.

The Matoses filed a counterclaim for $1 million. They accused Holland of misappropriating funds and failing to maintain financial records.

When Holland was disfellowshipped, they state in affidavits, morale collapsed at the gift shop, employees quit their jobs, customers stayed away, and sales plummeted.

Conducting business with Holland was untenable, they said, and they simply “wanted to find a clean way to exit our troubled business relationship with Mr. Holland.”

They say they agreed to keep the inventory because Holland said shipping it back to Ecuador would cost too much. They denied making any threats and they depicted the process as friendly.

The $980,447 judgment against the Matoses includes “funds looted from company accounts,” undeposited cash proceeds, online sales, inventory, and 9% interest from March 2018.

Holland has left Ecuador and lives in Victoria, B.C., Canada. His current status with the Jehovah’s Witnesses is not disclosed in court records.

The Matoses have relocated to Palm Bay, Florida.

Holland was represented by attorneys Luis F. Calvo and Joshua B. Katz. The Matoses were represented by Christopher Mun-Yin Seck and Eric Hui-Chieh Huang.