Greg Laurie Lawsuit: Abuse, Cover-Up, and Hush-Money Claims

Greg Laurie, founder and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, is a defendant in a consolidated federal lawsuit brought by 22 Romanian plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused as children at church-funded orphanages in Bucharest between 1998 and 2008. The Greg Laurie lawsuit accuses him and other church leaders of negligence, civil conspiracy, and providing substantial assistance to the alleged abuser, former Harvest pastor Paul Havsgaard. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and answers from Laurie and the church are due July 14, 2026.¹

Who Is Suing and What They Allege

The first two complaints were filed on September 16, 2025, by Marian Barbu and Mihai-Constantin Petcu.² More followed through late September and December 2025, and on March 6, 2026, all 22 plaintiffs consolidated their claims into a single 201-page federal complaint styled Barbu v. Harvest Christian Fellowship, No. 5:25-cv-02428-SSS-MAA, before U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes.³ All 22 plaintiffs are represented by the international law firm McAllister Olivarius.

The plaintiffs say they were recruited as children from Bucharest streets and state-run orphanages, lured with food and promises of shelter and education, and placed in a network of homes called “Harvest Homes” that Havsgaard set up in 1998 and ran for a decade.² The consolidated complaint describes digital penetration, groping, forced pornography consumption, and trafficking children to third parties.⁴ Barbu described the facility as resembling “a torture chamber inside a prison,” with children allegedly tied to beds or radiators and forced to kneel on walnut shells as punishment. Havsgaard is also accused of “pimping out” older boys via video chat or at bathhouses and keeping a portion of the earnings.

The complaint alleges Havsgaard also brought some of the Romanian children to California to help solicit donations for the church, subjecting them to continued abuse during those trips. That conduct is framed as sex trafficking under federal law.⁵

The claims include negligence, negligent supervision, and negligent retention under California law; civil conspiracy to commit intentional infliction of emotional distress and sexual battery; sex trafficking under 18 U.S.C. § 1595; and illicit sexual conduct in foreign places under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2423(c) and 2255.⁵ The plaintiffs rely on California Assembly Bill 218, the 2019 law that extended the statute of limitations for childhood sexual assault and allows treble damages where a plaintiff can prove a concerted effort to hide evidence of the abuse.⁶

What Laurie Personally Is Accused Of

Laurie is named alongside Harvest Christian Fellowship, former missions pastor Richard Schutte, and Havsgaard himself. The complaint alleges Laurie held “supreme authority” over the church and knowingly provided “substantial assistance” to Havsgaard’s abuse by failing to act on reports and by authorizing what the lawsuit calls a “soft landing” for Havsgaard once the abuse could no longer be ignored internally.⁵

The lawsuit says Harvest deposited approximately $17,000 per month into Havsgaard’s personal bank account to fund the Romanian operation, with little or no financial oversight.⁷ Plaintiffs characterize the Bucharest homes as church-operated and church-funded. Harvest maintains they were a separate entity and that Havsgaard was only “loosely connected” to the church.⁸

The Alleged Cover-Up

Central to the case is the claim that Harvest leadership knew about Havsgaard for years and chose to protect the ministry rather than the children. According to the consolidated complaint, reports of Havsgaard’s conduct reached church leadership as early as 1999 from children, Romanian staff, visiting volunteers, and other pastors. The lawsuit also alleges that before Havsgaard ever went to Romania, his sister Samantha told a Harvest lay leader that Havsgaard had abused his younger sisters at home, and that this was relayed to church leadership.⁷

In 2004, an internal investigation led by Harvest missionary Steve Quarles reportedly confirmed evidence of sexual abuse and financial misappropriation, found that at least $5,000 per month of the funding sent to Havsgaard was being spent without receipts, and recommended Havsgaard’s immediate removal.⁷ Plaintiffs allege leadership did not fire him, did not report him to police, and did not discipline him, because he was considered the “face of the ministry” and essential to fundraising.

Instead, the lawsuit says Laurie authorized a gradual closure of the homes over the next four years. When Havsgaard returned to California in 2008, he was reportedly given about $200,000 in severance and continued ministry work at affiliated churches.⁵ Harvest did not fire him until 2018, and staff allegedly scrubbed video archives and digital records to remove evidence of his ministry work afterward.⁹ Harvest reportedly did not contact police about the allegations until Labor Day 2024, roughly 20 years after the internal investigation.¹⁰

The complaint also alleges Harvest continued to solicit donations for the Romanian homes after they had closed, and that covert audio and video surveillance was used on the Riverside campus to monitor potential whistleblowers.⁹

The Hush-Money Allegations

The consolidated complaint goes beyond Romania to describe what plaintiffs call a broader “playbook” for handling pastor misconduct. It alleges former administrative pastor Jeff Lasseigne was fired in 2021 after affairs with church employees, and that Harvest paid him $4 million in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement, with no explanation given to staff or congregants.³ The complaint further alleges another administrative pastor, Brad Ormonde Sr., maintained a multi-year affair with Laurie’s personal secretary before resigning in 2022 under similarly opaque circumstances.¹¹

What Harvest and Laurie Say

Harvest has publicly denied the allegations. In a September 2025 statement distributed through the PR firm JDA Worldwide, an unidentified church spokesperson called the lawsuits “sensational” and “financial extortion,” saying “most of what is in the lawsuits about our church is absolutely and entirely false; some of it is plainly slanderous.” The church says the Romanian organization was a separate entity, that Harvest reported the allegations to law enforcement, and that the plaintiffs had “refused to even grant voluntary interviews with law enforcement in the United States.”¹² Harvest has stated it will “vigorously defend” the claims.

McAllister Olivarius pushed back, saying its staff had been in contact with Riverside police and that Havsgaard was a “veteran Harvest pastor” sent abroad by Laurie who remained on the church’s books for years, raised funds for the church, and ran homes bearing the Harvest name.⁸

Harvest has separately initiated civil proceedings in a court in Bucharest seeking a ruling that the claims are barred by Romania’s statute of limitations, and has pushed to move the entire U.S. case to Romania.¹³

Where the Case Stands

As of mid-June 2026, the consolidated case remains active before Judge Sykes. Harvest and Laurie have both executed waivers of service, with their answers due July 14, 2026. Schutte’s answer is due July 17, 2026, and service on Havsgaard was completed in May 2026.¹ A clerk’s default was entered against Havsgaard in January 2026 in one of the individual cases after he failed to respond to the complaint.¹⁴ No motion to dismiss has been ruled upon, and no settlement has been reported.

1
PACER Monitor. Marian Barbu et al v. Harvest Christian Fellowship et al
2
Press-Enterprise. Lawsuits Accuse Former Pastor of Megachurch in Riverside of Child Sex Abuse in Bucharest
3
The Roys Report. Lawsuit: Greg Laurie’s Church Covered Up Sexual Misconduct of Top Pastors, Paying One $4 Million to Sign NDA
4
Against Child Trafficking Database. Lawsuits Accuse Former Pastor of Megachurch of Child Sex Abuse
5
McAllister Olivarius. Ionescu v. Harvest Christian Fellowship, Complaint
6
California Legislature. AB 218, Chapter 861
7
MinistryWatch. Consolidated Abuse Lawsuit Against Harvest Christian Fellowship and Greg Laurie Contains New Allegations
8
McAllister Olivarius. Response by Law Firm McAllister Olivarius to Statement by Harvest Christian Fellowship and Greg Laurie
9
McAllister Olivarius. New Federal Filing Alleges Greg Laurie Megachurch Paid Hush Money to Hide Decades of Child Sexual Abuse and Other Scandals
10
The Roys Report. Harvest Christian Fellowship Waited 20 Years to Call Police About Suspected Pedophile Minister
11
ChurchLeaders. Greg Laurie’s Harvest Christian Fellowship Accused of Cover-Up Machine
12
The Wartburg Watch. An Unspecified Spokesperson From Harvest Responds to the Lawsuit
13
Christian Post. Harvest Says Lawyer for Accusers Has Confidential Church Files
14
PACER Monitor. Bogdan Ionescu v. Harvest Christian Fellowship et al