Posted on 01/16/2020 6:06:01 AM PST by Gamecock
CHICAGO — A Chicago pastor was indicted Friday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a federal program intended to feed needy kids. The State Board of Education said he got the money without having to undergo a background check.
At first, neighbors thought Rev. Clarence Smith Jr. of Lawndale’s New Life Impact Church was going to do something good for the block.
“He was coming around in Jordans and Bentleys and new cars,” Ravin Cosey said. “I’m like, ‘What a minute. Pastors don’t do that.’”
Smith Jr., 45, has been indicted on federal charges claiming he stole more than $800,000 from programs intended to feed kids who live in impoverished neighborhoods.
Court records allege Smith Jr. deposited checks into his own bank account then used the money to buy a $142,000 Bentley.
Investigators said he tried to cover it up. He claimed his financial records had been damaged in a flood.
Smith Jr., who often posts on social media about second chances and redemption, was not at his church Friday. But neighbors said he often sleeps there. It doesn’t hold services anymore.
Questions still remain about how Smith Jr. was able to get the money in the first place.
In 2011 he pleaded guilty to stealing $100,000 from an elderly man in DuPage county.
Why federal authorities would then cut him $100,000 checks less than five years later is unclear.
Smith Jr.’s lawyer had no comment.
The state Board of Education said Smith Jr. ran a daycare. The board noticed something was wrong in 2016 and terminated him from the food program. At that time he owed them $3.3 million. They did not tell us why he was allowed to be part of the food program in the first place given his felony record. The released documents and a statement that said: The Child and Adult Care Food Program is a federal grant program administered in part by the Illinois State Board of Education. The CACFP serves nutritious meals and snacks to eligible children and adults who are enrolled for care at participating child care centers, day care homes, and adult day care centers. Federal law defines program participants as eligible public or private nonprofit child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, Head Start programs, and other institutions which are licensed or approved to provide day care services.
ISBE terminated New Life Community Ministries, Clarence Smith, and Eric Cunningham from CACFP participation and disqualified them from future CACFP participation, effective August 20, 2016.
ISBE also notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Investigation.
The board added:
Federal requirements do not include a background check for program operators. ISBE does check to ensure each applicant has not been placed on the National Disqualified List.
In addition, the applicant must agree to the certification statements in the permanent agreement, which include:
"I certify that neither the institution nor any of its key individuals has been convicted during the past seven years of any activities that indicate a lack of business integrity. Lack of business integrity includes fraud, antitrust violations, embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, receiving stolen property, making false claims, obstruction of justice, or any other activities indicating a lack of business integrity as defined by the State Agency."
Neighbors and an employee at Farm on Ogden tell WGN Smith Jr. worked with the Chicago Botanic Garden's Windy City Harvest program. But a spokesperson for the Chicago Botanic Garden said, “We do not verify if an individual is an employee or not without consent from the employee.”
“He was coming around in Jordans and Bentleys and new cars,”
Makes you wonder if he would have been caught otherwise.
Makes you wonder how many others are not caught because they are not stupid.
I guess now he can start a prison ministry.
You have to wonder when pastors show up with stuff their parishioners can’t afford.
Must be part of the Friends of Jussie crowd.
It makes you wonder how someone that stupid was smart enough to steal that much money.
how come almost every black guy with a bible is a “pastor”? We had several “pastors” where I worked.
Jesse Jackson has been doing this for decades and he’s fine. This guy must have forgotten to let somebody “wet his beak”.
(pssst!) (yo), (neighbors), (have you ever noticed how those Aldermen you vote for year after year live?) (jes’ sayin’.)
I talked with a lady a while back who had been a part of a black church for several years. She said the “demands” for money kept increasing and she started noticing that most of what was taken in was going to the benefit of the pastor and his family, not the congregation as a whole nor the community. She left that church.
Interestingly, she joined a multiracial church that did not operate that way. Now her dearest friend in the church is a white lady and she has friends who are like-minded, regardless of their skin color.
Even more interestingly, she now says that she is a Republican! She did say that she can’t discuss her political views with most of her family.
A few years ago another lady told me she had left her black church. She bought a new car, giving her older one to her son who was a student and in need of transportation. She was openly criticized from the pulpit for buying herself a car and not one for her pastor! She had a good job; she had worked her way up in her company through hard work and excellence and was trusted and valued by her employer. She was outraged that the pastor seemed to think that he was entitled to what she had. The car she had bought, BTW, was not a Bentley nor even a BMW, it was a standard midsize car.
When I was a teen, pumping gas at the local Texaco, a local pastor pulled up to the pumps in his Fleetwood. At his request, I topped off his tank with about 4 dollars (price was $0.489).
He gave me 16 quarters.
Just shook my head and said, “Thanks. Come again.”
Ignoring that he was a pastor - I wonder why he went so overboard.
$800K? Bentley etc.? That kind of materialism doesn’t bring any contentment in life.
The Race Card- membership comes with privilege.
Interesting how when you look at the financial background of a lot of televangelists you see huge mansions and cars and bizjets and they want more from the congregation. I look at Joel Osteen and Hagee and Benny Hinn, prosperity preachers.
A few years ago another lady told me she had left her black church. She bought a new car, giving her older one to her son who was a student and in need of transportation. She was openly criticized from the pulpit for buying herself a car and not one for her pastor!
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I seem to sorta remember that the Church would have a drawing every year or so for a ‘new car’ as a fund raiser.
Seem to remember that one of the Priests or Nuns always seemed to win and I would imagine that had one of the parishioners happened to ‘win’ that they would be expected to ‘donate’ to the needy....(Priest or Nun)..
Guess with them ‘winning’ outright took the ‘guilt trip’ of the winner away...<: <: <:
Sounds to me like he wanted every bit of public recognition and acclaim he could get.
Looks like the reverend been eatin’ all that food hisself.
And seems to pay well too.
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