Seventh-Day Adventist Church entities and pastors defeated proposed class allegations of luring parishioners into a “divinely inspired” cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

The investors’ civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations claims were barred by an amendment to a federal law governing securities litigation, Judge Ronnie Abrams said Thursday. Given the only basis for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to assert personal jurisdiction over the defendants comes under RICO, the judge dismissed the proposed class action.

The implied contracts between investors and alleged promoters of the “EminiFX” scheme constituted securities, Abrams said, and according to the allegations, …