PHILADELPHIA -- A Georgia businessman is accused of scamming at least 1,000 small, mostly black churches out of $3 million that he said would be invested in a chain of Christian-themed vacation resorts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a federal lawsuit on Nov. 4 against Abraham Kennard, of Wildwood, Ga., and his firm, Network International Investment Corp., according to The Associated Press.

The SEC claims Kennard promised pastors across the country a return of $500,000 for every $3,000 they invested. At least $2 million of that money was deposited in the bank account of one of the company's officers, the suit claims, and no resorts were built.

"This was a fraud that was designed to exploit the religious faith and ethnic pride of African-Americans, and the defendants here really played upon that trust and violated it," SEC lawyer Merri Jo Gillette told the AP.

Many of the churches that invested were new congregations with fewer than 50 in weekly worship attendance. Often housed in rented meeting halls and storefronts, the churches had little money and were looking for ways to finance the construction of larger churches, authorities said.

A federal judge in Philadelphia issued an injunction on Nov. 4 ordering Kennard and the company to cease fraudulent activity. The judge also froze the company's assets and ordered Kennard and other company officers not to destroy documents, according to the AP.