KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The trial of a Kansas City, Kan., man and several other people accused of bilking investors out of millions of dollars has been pushed back to October.

Isreal Owen Hawkins founded Petro America in 2007 and claimed the Kansas City, Mo.-based company had $284 billion in assets.

Federal prosecutors say thousands of people, including poor and elderly church members, were promised they would be rich if they purchased Petro stock for pennies per share.

Instead, prosecutors say Hawkins and co-defendants pocketed much of the money people paid to invest in a company whose assets were virtually worthless.

A few defendants have already pleaded guilty in the case, which had been scheduled to go to trial in two weeks.