TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A woman at the center of a federal investigation involving a raid on a multi-million dollar home in the exclusive Avila community appeared in a Tampa courtroom on Thursday.

The federal government said Michelle Brannon, 56, was a key leader in the Kingdom of God Global Church, formerly known as Joshua Media Ministries International.

A federal indictment said Brannon and David Taylor, 53, set up several call centers and forced workers to raise money by using intimidation.

Court documents revealed that workers were not paid and publicly humiliated if they failed to meet demanding financial fundraising goals.

The documents show Brannon and Taylor deprived workers of sleep and food while they were forced to raise millions of dollars to support the lavish lifestyles of church leaders.

Pete Evans and Barry Bowen with the Trinity Foundation have been investigating fraud by televangelists for years.

They said the Kingdom of God Global Church stood out as one of the worst.

“They’re marketing religion and they’re making a joke out of their ministry and an embarrassment to God,” Evans said.

They said the church used religious intimidation on the workers.

“God is going to judge you because you didn’t meet your quota of donations,” Evans said is the wording used by church officials.

They said Taylor used outlandish claims on TV to help raise money.

“On TV, he claimed to heal thousands of people of cancer, to raise people from the dead. There’s no evidence for this,” Bowen said.

They said they began investigating this church when victims reached out to them.

“People began calling us who were working long hours and had finally escaped from the ministry and were concerned that people that they knew, still in the ministry, were being treated like slaves,” Evans said.

Michelle Brannon asked a federal judge on Thursday to move her case to Michigan, where the church is based.

The judge granted the request and said she can now be moved to Michigan, in custody, to answer to charges there.