To Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Jason Gerald Shenk was a religious missionary spreading the phrase of God abroad. With their monetary assist, he would ship Bibles and different Christian literature to China, the place Christianity has lengthy been curtailed by the Chinese Communist Party.
But for a minimum of 9 years, federal prosecutors stated, Mr. Shenk has used greater than $30 million in donations from these communities to fund his personal lavish way of life — full with diamonds and gold, sports activities playing and a private funding portfolio that features properties in Santiago, Chile, in addition to shares of a non-public nuclear power firm.
Federal prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Shenk, 45, for defrauding charities and people out of greater than $30 million, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia stated in an announcement. A grand jury in Georgia indicted him on costs together with 4 counts of wire fraud and over a dozen counts of cash laundering, in keeping with court docket paperwork unsealed on Tuesday.
A federal investigation into Mr. Shenk’s whereabouts is underway at the side of authorities in different international locations, stated Barry L. Paschal, a spokesman for the Southern District of Georgia. Prosecutors stated Mr. Shenk renounced his citizenship in 2016 to keep away from reporting his funds, and he’s believed to be residing exterior of the United States. It isn’t clear if Mr. Shenk has a lawyer.
Numerous the person donors Mr. Shenk has been accused of defrauding had been of the Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada, Mr. Paschal stated.
Mr. Shenk was charged in December and faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted. He would additionally must forfeit any belongings associated to the offenses and would face “substantial financial penalties,” prosecutors stated.
Jill E. Steinberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, stated within the assertion that Mr. Shenk’s alleged actions had been an egregious breach of belief.
“When people of faith donate money for evangelistic purposes, they reasonably expect those who solicit their donations to act as faithful stewards of those funds,” she stated.
From April 2010 to July 2019, Mr. Shenk has been accused of orchestrating a posh scheme to redirect the Bible funds he obtained from charities for his private use. According to the indictment, he hid the place the earnings had been from by laundering them by financial institution accounts in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States that had been registered beneath shell firms within the British Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Samoan Islands.
Prosecutors stated they discovered dozens of cash transfers throughout quite a few financial institution accounts that Mr. Shenk had revamped the span of about three years. They imagine the transfers had been meant to cover the funds’ origins as donations from people and spiritual charities.
For 9 years, Mr. Shenk acquired $22 million from one unnamed charity that donated cash abroad to offer assist to poor households or these impacted by pure disasters, prosecutors stated. He claimed he would use the funds to distribute Bibles in China, in keeping with the indictment. Prosecutors stated Mr. Shenk additionally obtained $10 million from one other unnamed charity that supported victims of human trafficking and missionaries around the globe with medical payments.
Various people additionally donated on to financial institution accounts managed by Mr. Shenk, prosecutors added.
One checking account in Georgia affiliated with Mr. Shenk is owned by MorningStar Ministries, a Christian group based mostly in South Carolina, prosecutors stated. Mr. Shenk, who, together with two kinfolk, was approved to make use of the account, transferred over $1.5 million from the MorningStar Ministries financial institution to 2 accounts owned by his shell firms in Singapore, in keeping with court docket paperwork. The two kinfolk weren’t indicted.
MorningStar Ministries, in keeping with its web site, organizes Christian conferences and occasions around the globe. However, it’s neither registered as a authorized entity in Georgia nor a charity group with the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors stated.
Neither Mr. Shenk nor members of his household could possibly be reached for touch upon Thursday. MorningStar Ministry didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The court docket will appoint a lawyer to Mr. Shenk as soon as he’s arrested and arraigned, stated Mr. Paschal. Arraignments sometimes happen inside a couple of weeks when a defendant is within the nation, he added.
Source: www.nytimes.com