SAN DIEGO -- A local religious leader is among the alleged victims of a Los Angeles doctor who claimed she could cure cancer with herbal treatments, 10News reported.

Bishop George McKinney, founder and senior pastor of St. Stephen's Cathedral Church of God in Christ, was marred to his wife, Jean, for 47 years. When his wife developed terminal cancer, McKinney took her to see Dr. Christine Daniel in December 2003, who was not only a doctor but an ordained minister.

Daniel gave Jean McKinney herbs she said were grown in South America and Africa. Prosecutors said they were actually vitamins that could be bought at any drugstore.

George McKinney paid Daniel more than $100,000 for the herbs and treatments.

"I didn't have $100,000 plus, so I borrowed and I called friends," McKinney said.

McKinney suffered deep financial problems in addition to dealing with his wife's illness. She died in June 2004.

Not long after Jean McKinney's passing, federal agents contacted George McKinney and told him that Daniel was being investigated. McKinney realizes now that Daniel was preying on people in dire straits.

"She took advantage of them for financial purposes, and that's wicked; that's evil," said McKinney.

Daniel is facing charges of mail and wire fraud, and could be sentenced to 80 years in prison.

"Not interested in seeing her punished," McKinney said. "I'd like to see her make restitution, and I'd like to see her repent for the evil that was done to me and many others."

Prosecutors said she collected $1.5 million from 55 families between 2001 and 2004.