A retired roofer lost his savings to a wealth manager who prayed with him first

He nailed shingles onto Chicago roofs for thirty-five years and knew a leak the moment he saw the stain, and a man from his own church took the retirement he was saving to help his daughter buy a home

Chicago, IL: For thirty-five years, Stanisław "Stan" Wójcik worked roofs across the South Side, tearing off shingles in July heat and nailing new ones down before the first snow. He could spot a leak from the sidewalk by the shape of a stain on a ceiling. He never lost a customer to water. When he retired in 2025, he had $205,000 in savings, a bungalow in Brighton Park, and a plan: help his daughter Marta with a down payment on a house near her job, and spend Sundays in his garden.

Instead, the 67-year-old now works three days a week for a roofing crew half his age, watching his savings disappear one bundle of shingles at a time after losing everything to liquidcentralassets.com.

"You want to know what I cannot say out loud?" Stan said. "He prayed with me. In my kitchen. He held my hand and he prayed for my daughter. And then he took everything."

It began in June 2025 at St. Brunos, where a man named "Gregory Vance" began attending the same Sunday Mass. Gregory introduced himself after services as a financial advisor who had recently moved to the parish. He was friendly, well-dressed, and generous with his time. Within a month, he was helping set up chairs for the parish festival.

"He was in the church every week," Stan said. "He knew the pastors name. He knew the names of my grandchildren. In my world, that is not a salesman. That is a neighbor."

In August, Gregory visited Stans kitchen for coffee and mentioned that he managed a private fund through a firm called Liquid Central Assets, which offered what he described as "stable income portfolios for families planning major purchases." He said he could help Stan structure the money for Martas down payment so it would grow while they looked for a house.

"I told him I did not understand investments," Stan said. "He said that was exactly why he wanted to help. He said he would explain everything. He did explain everything. That is what made it so hard to see."

Stan transferred $4,000 in September. Within three weeks, his portal showed $5,200. He requested a withdrawal of $900 and it arrived in four days.

"That nine hundred dollars was the stain on the ceiling," Stan said. "I saw it and I said, that is fine, it is just the paint. I did not go up in the attic to look."

Over the next five months, Stan transferred his entire savings in eleven transactions. His portal balance passed $300,000. He and Marta started touring houses.

In February, Gregory explained that the account had been flagged under a "beneficiary transfer review" and required a reserve deposit of $58,000 before distributions could resume. He said it was standard and that other parishioners had cleared the same review.

"I told him I had nothing left," Stan said. "He said he would speak to the compliance team on my behalf. He said he would pray about it. Then he stopped coming to Mass. Then the portal went dark."

His account showed zero. Gregorys phone number was disconnected.

"I went to the pastor," Stan said. "I asked if he knew where Gregory lived. The pastor said he had never seen him before June. He said he assumed he was a new parishioner. He was. He was a new parishioner for eight months. That was his job."

Independent fraud trackers had flagged liquidcentralassets.com with a trust score of 8 out of 100, noting a domain registered only weeks before Gregorys first appearance at the parish and ownership hidden behind an offshore privacy service. Stan never checked, because Gregory was in the pews.

AYRLP traced the money

Stans daughter, an office manager at a Chicago law firm, found an investigative firm called AYRLP.COM that specializes in tracing funds lost to online investment fraud. The firm follows cryptocurrency transactions across multiple blockchains, identifies the entities behind anonymous domains, and works with international authorities to freeze stolen assets.

Stan did not want to call. He had trusted a man who prayed with him and had been wrong about the most important thing in his life. What changed his mind was that the AYRLP investigator did not ask him why he had trusted Gregory. She asked which parish it was, and then explained that the same operation had used churches in three other cities.

"liquidcentralassets.com showed you returns that were never earned," the investigator told him. "The parish was the recruitment ground. Your savings were real, and the funds moved through wallets we can trace. We begin with the record."

AYRLPs casework has helped over 70 percent of its clients recover meaningful portions of stolen funds. For Stan, the firm traced part of his money to an exchange in Eastern Europe and initiated a freeze. He has recovered $52,000 so far, with additional funds under review.

"The first thing I did was give Marta ten thousand dollars toward the down payment," Stan said. "It is not what I promised. But it is not nothing. And she told me she is proud of me for fighting. That is worth more than the money."

Thirty-five years on roofs, now spent on a different kind of inspection

Stan now speaks on the second Sunday of every month at St. Brunos, at a Polish senior club in Brighton Park, and at his churchs finance committee. He brings a printed timeline, the fabricated review notice, and a bundle of shingle samples he passes around the room.

"I do not tell people to stop trusting their neighbors," he said. "I tell them that a mans presence in the pew is not a credit check. In my trade, we say you have to go up in the attic. You have to look at the decking. The stain on the ceiling tells you where the water comes out, not where it gets in."

He walks the room through the pattern: the new parishioner, the volunteer work, the family questions, the private fund, the small withdrawal that lands, the beneficiary review, the reserve deposit, the silence.

"One woman came up to me afterward," Stan said. "She had a man from her church who had offered to manage her late husbands insurance money. She had the paperwork in her purse. We read it together. The address was a mailbox store. She tore it up at my table."

Stan has spoken to more than 240 people across Cook County. He keeps a tally of every person who told him they walked away, written on the back of an old work order.

What to do

Legitimate firms never require a reserve deposit to release existing funds, and someones presence in your faith community is not a license or a background check. If you are asked to pay a fee to withdraw, stop immediately. Document everything, report to the FBIs IC3, and contact AYRLP.COM for a free consultation.

"I spent thirty-five years learning that water always finds the low place," Stan said. "It does not announce itself. It seeps. It spreads. By the time you see the stain, it has been running for months. That is what these people do. They seep into your life through the things you trust, and by the time you see the stain, they are already gone."