Compared to Benard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scam, a Queens hedge fund gone bad was small potatoes, a mere $12.3 million hedge fund fraud case.

But the decision by five defendants to plead guilty to fraud in federal court in Brooklyn at the beginning of March in the case of Jadis Capital still leaves a lot of questions for those who were touched by the fraud.

Besides the people who invested, and lost, about $10.2 million, according to prosecutors, many others were hurt by the fraud. They were members of the Queens church where Jadis Capital principles doubled as elders and pastors.

On March 8, Isaac Ovid, 29, the former chief executive officer of Jadis Capital, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was the last to plead guilty of the five charged in the case.

One of the others who pleaded guilty, Joseph Jonathan Coleman, 41, was considered by church members to be the heir apparent to the lead role at the Local Christian Assembly Church in Forest Hills, Queens, which his father, Joseph Coleman, had founded and was the pastor.

Three others who pleaded guilty in the fraud were Aaron Riddle, 35, the firm’s former chief financial officer, Robert Riddle, 60, the ex-Northeast regional vice-president of sales and Timothy Smith, 36, the former first vice president and chief strategist, according to court documents. The two Riddles and Smith were also involved in leadership capacities at the LCA Church.

When HedgeFund.net reported the arrest of the church leaders in June 2009, at first blush, it appeared to be a standard affinity financial crimes story. Affinity crimes are when members of a certain ethnic or social group target their own.

Madoff’s story is, to some extent a story of an affinity crime, as many of his victims, like Madoff, were Jewish or Jewish organizations. Indeed, the man who gave the scam its name, Charles Ponzi, began in the 1920s by preying on his fellow Italian-American immigrants.

So the story of the affinity Ponzi scheme is one of additional betrayal on top of the money taken. The investor trusts because he is giving money to one of his own.

Then, add to that when people come to their house of worship, looking for spiritual uplift and guidance and, instead, are ripped off.

The story of the Queens church leaders’ arrest in HFN garnered the most comments of any story to date. Many mirror the anguish felt by those who thought they were part of a trusting church community and were shocked by what happened when their leaders were arrested.

“The Jadis case is still ongoing, they keep it hush, hush because those are all of the pastor's puppets involved and his son of course, they don't really want the word to get out, but they will be going to trial real soon,” one person posted to the HFN site.

“It's really funny that after so many years in the LCA you don't really know the Pastor or his family. The Pastor only cares about himself and his family . . . What a shame that people don't know that and he continues to fool the people,” someone else posted.

“He that is with out sin cast the first stone,” said someone calling himself “I Know my Redeemer Liveth,” expressing Christian sentiments of forgiveness.

But when the five defendants pleaded guilty, it did not end the flow of comments. “Wondering why” wrote that the case left him feeling confused and bad for everyone involved as all of the defendants were his friends at one time.

“I hear a lot of people say that they were all mislead by Isaac [Ovid] but I think at some point they should take responsibility. Ignorance is not an excuse,” Wondering wrote.

Christine, who was a longtime member of the LCA Church, tells HFN that the guilty pleas did not end her feeling of turmoil about the case. (Christine is not her real name; she asked that it be withheld because some of her relatives still support the church and it causes friction in her family.)

“The pastor should have been prosecuted,” Christine says. “He was able to cover this up as he has covered up other things in the past.”

Prosecutors said that the elder Coleman blessed the Jadis fund when church members founded it. But that is not the same thing as intent to defraud and reports at the time of the five principles arrest said that the pastor was cooperating with the authorities.

Christine personally knows one of the elderly, disabled parishioners who was mentioned as one of the victims in the prosecutor’s court papers.

Although the parishioner lost everything, Christine says the victim still supports her church.

The feeling in the church was that the parishioners were “not to question anything. If you disagree, you are made an example of from the pulpit,” Christine says. “They rebuke you from the pulpit.”

Brian King, one of Ovid’s attorneys, says his client legitimately tried to invest the money, but got in over his head.

Yet prosecutors charged that those perpetuating the fraud used most of the money to lavish gifts on themselves and their friends. Those purchases included a $200,000 Bentley automobile used by Ovid, and $1.6 million to renovate Jadis’ offices in Uniondale, N.Y., and to satisfy debts that Ovid incurred before he started Jadis.

Since Ovid is from Trinidad, along with the five years in prison that all the defendants face, he also could be deported.

Jonathan Coleman’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment on his client’s guilty plea.

At the sentencing hearings to be held in July, the judge will also determine restitution. About $2 million has been located, according to someone familiar with the case.

But the rest of the money is essentially gone, the source said.