DETROIT, MI — A shaman with multiple aliases, a criminal record and a now-shuttered psychedelic mushroom church in Detroit has been arrested on federal fraud charges.
“Shaman Shu,” as he refers to himself, is accused of masterminding a penny stock “pump-and-dump scheme” that defrauded investors out of nearly $8 million between 2019 and 2021.
The indictment identifies the self-proclaimed “spiritual guide and healer” by his legal name, Bobby Shumake Japhia, which he previously changed from Robert S. Shumake Jr., and lists other aliases: Robert Japhia and Shaman Bobby Shu.
Shumake garnered media attention in Michigan when in September 2023 he opened Soul Tribes International Ministries in Detroit’s Bushnell Congregational Church. The church operated a shop that Shumake referred to as a “sacrament room,” selling illegal psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms. Detroit police raided the church, declared it a public nuisance and ordered the psychedelic church to close a few weeks later.
Shumake helped draft a ballot initiative that Detroit voters passed in 2021 decriminalizing magic mushrooms, paving the way for his church. While the church remains closed, Shumake has filed motions in Wayne County Circuit Court to reopen, citing religious protections among other arguments.
Shumake is now charged in Washington, D.C.‘s U.S. District Court with securities fraud and obstruction of justice, each crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Available online records don’t indicate if Shumake has been released on bond or has an attorney. He is scheduled to appear for an arraignment and initial appearance via telephone on Oct. 17.
In a prepared statement, Shumake said he believes government officials are targeting him because of his prior involvement in efforts to get former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick released early from serving a 28-year prison sentence for public corruption.
As one of his final actions in office, former President Donald Trump in June 2020 commuted Kilpatrick’s sentence.
“The coordinated efforts between the city of Detroit and federal agencies to target me and our ministry began after I played a pivotal role in securing Kwame Kilpatrick’s early release,” Shumake said. “Since that time, we have faced illegal raids, multiple government investigations, and relentless scrutiny—none of which are about justice, but about political retaliation and silencing the healing work we do.”
A grand jury indicted Shumake on June 14 but it remained sealed until this week.
The indictment said Shumake, with the help of at least six accomplices, conducted fraud, beginning in 2019, when Shumake purchased a controlling share in a publicly traded Colorado-based company named Minerco. Minerco purported itself to be in the beverage industry, although it “had been dormant for several years,” the indictment said.
Shares for the company sold in the over-the-counter market, a securities exchange for businesses not listed in more prominent and regulated exchanges, like the NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange. At the time, Minerco stock was virtually worthless, selling at 1/100 of a penny per share.
Shumake “covertly acquired” a billion shares of the stock, which would have cost about $100,000, and placed them under the ownership of his “then-romantic partner,” a woman who lived in Georgia, the indictment said.
Because he previously faced criminal charges and unflattering media coverage, including 2017 convictions of obtaining money by false pretenses, for which Shumake served 18 months probation, the indictment said Shumake sought to conceal his involvement.
His accomplice, Julius M. Jenge, who lived in Virginia and Maryland, was inserted as the new Minerco CEO, although investigators said Jenge took his direction from Shumake. Jenge was previously arrested and charged with securities fraud in August while trying to board a plan to Tanzania, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
MLive has requested and is awaiting comment from Jenge’s attorney listed in court records.
Once in control of the mostly defunct company, investigators claim Shumake and others issued press releases and posted in online investment groups claiming Minerco was acquired by a “psilocybin research and investment firm” and the ”first publicly traded company focused on the research, production and distribution of psilocybin mushrooms.”
“In truth, the company that acquired Minerco lacked any operations, was merely a holding company for Minerco shares and had no specialized experience,” the indictment said. Other deceptions alleged in the indictment include claims that the business was valued near $1 billion, that it acquired equipment for use in psilocybin product manufacturing and had acquired licenses to grow, process and extract cannabis and psilocybin through a joint business venture.
The stock price began to rise and between February and May 2021 Shumake or entities he controlled sold 928 million shares, raising $8.4 million in proceeds, of which Shumake retained about $2.5 million, the indictment said. The remainder was doled out to accomplices.
“Having executed the pump-and-dump scheme, Shumake abandoned Minerco” and the optimistic press releases ceased, the indictment said.
The SEC became suspicious and halted all trading of Minerco stock on May 26, 2021. According to the indictment, Shumake began deleting emails in an effort to destroy evidence.
It’s around this time that Shumake ramped up his push to decriminalize mushrooms in Detroit.
Prior to the penny-stock scheme, federal SEC investigators accused Shumake and others of being part of fraudulent online crowdfunding scheme that bilked thousands of investors out of nearly $1.8 million. The federal complaint said Shumake, accomplices and shell companies they created presented themselves as a business that planned to purchase property and then lease it to players in the “multi-billion dollar and growing cannabis industry.”
According to federal court documents, Shumake was charged with seven financial crimes in September 2021 and the case is pending.
