FBI Raid on Food Charity Raises Questions

The FBI last month raided the headquarters of Angel Food Ministries in Monroe, Ga. Earlier lawsuits allege founders paid selves, sons excessive amounts. (Photo: John Bazemore / AP)

For more than a decade, Angel Food Ministries seemed like a godsend for families who purchased its low-cost food boxes and the churches that shared millions in revenue for distributing the goods.

It became an economic juggernaut in the faith community, employing hundreds, feeding thousands a month and pouring $19 million into its network of more than 5,000 host churches in 35 states.

Now, lawsuits coupled with an FBI raid at the group's headquarters has raised accusations of financial mismanagement at the nonprofit. The raid and ensuing FBI investigation have left congregations and church leaders weighing whether to cut their ties to the high-profile charity after the reported disclosure that six-figure salaries were paid to its founders.

"We get signed up and I start hearing this," said the Rev. Chad Massey, whose Unadilla First Baptist Church in central Georgia planned to place its first Angel Food order this month. "It's kind of hard to know what to do."

FBI officials haven't disclosed the nature of the investigation surrounding the ministry.

Angel Food has acknowledged that a grand jury investigation is looking into what it called "alleged financial irregularities" involving unspecified individuals — but not the ministry itself.

Meanwhile, Angel Food Ministries board members and former employees have filed lawsuits accusing Angel Food leadership of using the non-denominational nonprofit as a moneymaking venture.

The Rev. Joseph Wingo and wife Linda founded the ministry in 1994 to help 34 families hurt by plant closings in the manufacturing town of Monroe, about 45 miles east of Atlanta.

Since then, Angel Food Ministries has grown to hundreds of workers supplying food for anti-poverty programs at more than 5,000 churches spanning several denominations. There are 473 distribution centers listed in Georgia and more than 1,400 concentrated in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

All told, the ministry says it serves more than 500,000 families a month. It has no plans to interrupt food delivery.

Families typically order multi-meal boxes of meatballs, ham and other staples from monthly menus, spending roughly $30 for an estimated $65 worth of groceries, Angel Food says. Later, they collect boxes at churches that are rewarded with at least $1 for every box delivered.

At Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Conyers, administrative assistant Glenda Evans said leaders are sticking by Angel Food. "Hopefully it gets worked out," Evans said.

In 2006, the ministry reported revenue of $96 million dollars and $17 million in expenses. Tax records from that year show the Wingos and two of their sons earned a combined total in excess of $2.1 million for leading the ministry, up from just less than a combined $323,000 a year earlier.

Their combined salaries dipped to $501,472 in 2007, records showed.

Wingo did not respond to repeated AP requests to be interviewed.

In December, the salaries prompted a national Christian charity watchdog group to flag Angel Food as one of 30 ministries donors should avoid.

"One family for one year making ... more than the president of the United States of America is just kind of outrageous," said Rodney Pitzer, a top official at Wall Watchers. "That should be enough for donors to be concerned."

Two Angel Food board members alleged in a lawsuit last month that the Wingos enriched themselves by at least $2.7 million and sought to bar the Wingos from their Monroe headquarters. The board members accused the Wingos of directing $600,000 from Angel Food to their church as a "housing allowance."

In a settlement reached behind closed doors Friday, the Wingos agreed to an audit and to stopping questionable financial practices — like using corporate credit cards for personal expenses — in lieu of being barred from the premises, according to Thomas Rogers, an attorney representing the board members.

Attorneys representing the Wingos would not reveal further details of the settlement, and the Wingos themselves declined to comment.

A statement on Angel Food's Web site called the lawsuit an effort "by two directors who are interested in removing the founders of the ministry — Pastors Joe and Linda Wingo — only to install themselves in the founders place. This is a power grab."

In an earlier statement, Angel Food portrayed the FBI's Feb. 11 search as part of an "investigation of an individual or individuals connected to the organization, and not regarding the ministry itself."

In disputing the suit, Angel Food said it has been "a model corporate citizen," donating $5.2 million to more than 5,000 communities in 2008.

Luke Erickson, a pastor at Mountain Christian Church near Baltimore, Md., said church leaders like himself received an explanation from the ministry for the high salaries.

"They've invested a lot in it ... there was some kind of compensation given back to them by Angel Food and it was reflected in a large salary in one year," Erickson said.

Finances of prominent ministries have come under scrutiny of late, including a Senate probe begun last year of claims of extravagant spending by some leaders of Christian broadcast ministries nationwide.

The FBI involvement in the Angel Food case could imply far more than just overpaid staff, said Dean Zerbe, former senior counsel with the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

Though not involved with the Angel Food case, Zerbe said, "If you have ... the FBI knocking on your door of a charity, you've got issues beyond just paying a fellow too much."

FBI officials had no comment Wednesday, and no charges have been filed.

In Georgia, Donna Foster attends Emmanuel Praise — the Wingos' church — and her son works at Angel Food. Recently, "Pastor Joe found out I was unemployed and he sent me a box of food."

She blamed honest mistakes for any perceived financial mix-ups.

"There are some people you can tell if they're faking it," Foster said. "You can tell that these people are real."

(AP)

Ga. Man Accused of Bomb Threats Against FBI

A Georgia man is accused of threatening to blow up FBI buildings nationwide.

Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, said Friday 23-year-old Michael Robert DeJong of Buford was arrested Wednesday morning, one week after the threat was made on the FBI.gov Web site.

DeJong is in custody pending a probable cause and bond hearing on Tuesday.

DeJong was arrested at a friend's home in Auburn, Ga., after agents traced the threat to a publicly available computer in the Auburn library. Examining the computer contents, agents were led to DeJong, who they learned had been convicted of threats against President Bush in 2007.

The threat did not specify which FBI offices would be targeted other than that the bomber would start with Atlanta.

(AP)

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the FBI.

FBI: Columbus murder suspect on top 10 list

Registe (FBI)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday placed Columbus resident Michael Jason Registe, 25, on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Registe is a suspect in the murders of two Columbus high school grads in an apartment parking lot last July.

The FBI will announce details of the step at a press conference Monday morning, according to a statement released Saturday.

The Bureau also upped the reward on information leading to Registe’s arrest from $20,000 to $100,000.

More details are available at the FBI website: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/registe_mj.htm:

"MICHAEL JASON REGISTE IS WANTED FOR HIS ALLEGED PARTICIPATION IN A DOUBLE HOMICIDE IN COLUMBUS, GEORGIA. ON JULY 20, 2007, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS RESPONDED TO A SHOOTING INCIDENT IN WHICH TWO MALES SITTING INSIDE A TRUCK HAD SUFFERED EXECUTION-STYLE GUNSHOT WOUNDS TO THE BACK OF THEIR HEADS. ONE OF THE VICTIMS DIED AT THE SCENE AND THE OTHER DIED SHORTLY AFTERWARD.

"CONSIDERED ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

"IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE."

GBI, FBI tackle cyber-crime

The Federal and Georgia Bureaus of Investigation are taking aim at cyber-crime at a new training center.

Officials say the recently established FBI and GBI facility will be used to investigate child pornography, fraud, identity theft and other computer-related crimes.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan says the training is specialized and the gear is high tech:

"We're talking about equipment that allows the investigator to interface with the service provider; software which allows the investigator to capture electronic images and to download data, so that it is held as evidence and can be presented in court."

The facility is located at FBI headquarters in Atlanta, and has held several training classes since it began operations two months ago. 70 police and sheriff's departments statewide are taking part in the program.

Keenan added that the facility will reduce training costs, since local law-enforcement officials will not have to travel to FBI headquarters in Washington.

The FBI officials say cyber-crime fraud costs the US $4 billion dollars annually.

FBI Hiring In Georgia

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a few good men and women in Georgia - not as fugitives, but rather to join the force.

It's the largest FBI recruiting effort since the terror attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

FBI Special Agent Steve Lazarus of the Atlanta Field Office says that while he couldn't provide figures of how may spots were in Georgia, he said the agency employs over 30,000 personnel nationwide, and that 13,000 of them were gun and badge-carrying agents.

The law-enforcement agency's posted openings for over 2,000 positions nationwide; from accountants and auto mechanics, to nurses, linguists and cyberspooks.

Eight hundred and fifty of the spots are for special agents.

Professor John Fuller teaches criminology at the University of West Georgia. He says terror threats and natural attrition are behind the hiring drive:

"I'm finding from my students that are going out there for employment; that even though this is a very, very tough time, that many agencies are experiencing vacancies because there's this new mandate to do something about terrorism, and -- their established workforce -- many of them are reaching the retirement age."

The agency has 56 field offices nationwide.

Lazarus said applicants should apply through the agency's website, and not call the Atlanta office.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the FBI in Georgia.

Dad who fled with kids sent threatening letter

A Georgia man who fled the state last week with his three young children sent a letter to his father stating that he was going to kill the kids, the FBI said Tuesday.

Eddie Harrington, 28, has been missing from the Columbus, Ga., area since at least March 6, when authorities in Tennessee issued a child abduction alert after he may have been spotted there.

He is believed to be traveling with his twin 23-month-old girls, and his 3-year-old son, according to the FBI.

At some point, Eddie Harrington sent a letter to his father in the Indianapolis area "indicating he was going to kill the kids," an FBI statement said.

Columbus police issued a felony child endangerment warrant for Harrington, and the FBI on Monday issued a federal unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant. He is believed to have left the state, and is headed for Indianapolis.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this case.

(The Associated Press)

FBI spied on MLK's widow

Newly-released documents show that federal agents spied on the widow of Reverend Martin Luther King Junior for several years after his assassination in 1968. The documents show that the FBI worried Coretta Scott King would follow in the footsteps of the slain civil rights leader. In memos, the FBI noted concern that she might attempt "to tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement." The FBI closed its file on King four years after her husband’s death. Coretta Scott King died in February 2006.

Officials up reward for alleged killer to $20,000

Michael Jason Registe. (FBI)

A renewed effort is under way to capture a man wanted in a nearly 1-year-old double homicide case in Columbus.

The FBI and Columbus Police announced Wednesday that the reward for information leading to the capture of Michael Jason Registe was increased from $5,000 to $20,000.

Police said Registe is wanted in the shooting deaths of 21-year-old Randy Newton Jr., and 20-year-old Bryan Kilgore. Both men were gunned down on July 20th, 2007 in the parking lot of Cross Creek Apartments.

FBI Senior Agent Donnie Green said he believes someone know Registe's whereabouts, but won't come forward.

The FBI website page on Registe warns that he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

(With The Associated Press)

FBI nabs reputed 'Grandpa Bandit'

Phillips (Access N. Georgia.com)

Authorities say they have arrested the so-called "Grandpa Bandit," a man in his mid-60s who is suspected in seven bank heists in Georgia and Tennessee.

The FBI says Bobby Joe Phillips was arrested Saturday morning without incident by a police officer in the central Georgia town of Perry.

Authorities say Phillips is suspected of robbing banks in the Georgia cities of Covington, Suwanee and Warner Robins. He's also accused of robbing two banks in Knoxville, Tenn., two times each.

FBI Special Agent Gary Kidder has said the case is unusual because of Phillips' age - and because he makes no effort to disguise himself during the robberies.

(The Associated Press)

FBI's Georgia bureau turns 100

The FBI has been in Georgia for 100 years. Today the Atlanta FBI celebrated the bureau's anniversary. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was started on July 26, 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the second term of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Columbus: FBI reports rise in violent attacks

The just-released FBI national crime report says violent crime in Columbus nearly doubled in 2006. A total of 1,188 violent crimes were reported last year, a rise of 992 from 2005.

The incidence of murders since 2005 stayed the same, at 22, according to the report. Columbus Police report that there were 17 murders, and chalk up the difference to a likely discrepancy in classification.

The number of reported rapes dropped from 24 to 16.

More information is available at the FBI website.

Abducted woman found near Six Flags

McConnell-Hancock. (Final Harvest Church)

A pregnant Ohio attorney who had been missing since Wednesday was found alive Saturday behind a suburban Atlanta amusement park, and police said she reported having been abducted. There were no immediate arrests.

Karyn McConnell-Hancock, 35, who is six months pregnant, told Cobb County police that two men and a woman abducted her. She was last seen outside a juvenile court building in Toledo, Ohio, around 9 a.m. Wednesday, police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce said.

The suspects reportedly dumped her out of a vehicle in Georgia on Saturday morning, and she wandered to a back gate to the Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park, Pierce said. The woman flagged down a motorist, who called police at about 6:45 a.m. The park is located in Austell, 15 miles northwest of Atlanta.

She appeared to be in good health. The motorist she flagged down described her as disoriented, according to Toledo police spokeswoman Capt. Diana Ruiz-Krause.

Details on where she was between Wednesday and Saturday, descriptions of her alleged abductors and the vehicle they were driving were unclear. Ruiz-Krause said McConnell-Hancock called her husband Thursday afternoon to say she had been kidnapped. Police were unable to trace the call, which was brief.

The woman's car has not been located, Ruiz-Krause said.

By midday Saturday, the FBI had been called in to assist, Pierce said. An FBI spokesman in Atlanta, Stephen Emmett, declined to comment, referring questions to his counterpart in Ohio. The FBI office there declined to make a spokesman available for comment.

McConnell-Hancock had been having trouble with a client and had received suspicious phone calls, her husband told police in Ohio.

Georgia authorities were interviewing McConnell-Hancock Saturday. Toledo police were making arrangements to travel to Georgia and escort her back to Ohio.

McConnell-Hancock is a former city councilwoman in Toledo.

(Associated Press Writers Stephen Majors and Emily Zeugner contributed to this report from Columbus, Ohio)

Georgia 6th in the nation for fraudulent mortgages

Officials say Georgia has dropped from tops in the country in mortgage fraud to number six but remains a hotbed for fraudulent housing loans.

The U.S. attorney and head of the FBI division in Atlanta discussed the trends at a news conference Thursday as officials announced a nationwide crackdown in which 406 people have been charged since March 1, including seven in Atlanta on Wednesday.

The FBI estimates $1 billion in losses due to fraud related to the crackdown labeled "Operation Malicious Mortgage."

Greg Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, said the bureau has arrested 60 people in Georgia over the past four years, involving millions of dollars in losses to lenders.

Bodies of missing children, father found

Aliyah, Agena and Cedrick (Columbus Police)

The local FBI office says a citizen notified authorities at midday when they came upon the bodies, and the vehicle they had been traveling in.

Law enforcement officials have notified the children's mother, Agena Battle.

The four were found in an industrial park in a rural, wooded area on the eastern part of the city.

The FBI would not confirm how the four died. Muscogee County coroner Bill Thrower declined to say if it was a murder-suicide, according to the Associated Press.

Battle reported 23-month-old twins Aliyah and Agena, their brother, three-year-old Cedrick, and their father, Eddie Harrington, 28, as missing on Wednesday morning, March 5th.

Eddie Harrington (Columbus Police)

FBI Special Agent Steve Emmett in Atlanta describes Harrington's last communication with Battle:

“He left behind a letter, to be found by his girlfriend, where he threatened to kill those children. A second letter was mailed to his father in Indianapolis.”

A Levi's-Amber Alert was announced after the four were reported missing, and searches began throughout Georgia, and the southeast.

The bodies were sent to the GBI crime lab for autopsy.

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this story.

FBI surveilling judge

The FBI has been spying on a south Georgia judge. Federal prosecutors say agent have been conducting electronic surveillance on Clinch County Superior Court Judge Brooks Blitch. Blitch is under investigation for alleged misconduct. He has not been charged with any crimes, but faces accusations of ordering illegal payments to county employees and ordering the early release of imprisoned felons.

Columbus Patrol Officer Implicated in Heist

A Columbus patrol officer was placed on administrative leave after the FBI accused her of aiding a bank robbery.

Shatoya Wright was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with making false statements to the FBI.

Agents said a man charged with robbing a Wachovia Bank in Oct. 2007 told them Wright helped him steal $8,000 during the heist. Accused bank robber Odis Christopher Hallstock said Wright also helped him pass counterfeit $100 bills through the bank.

Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren said Wright was hired 3 months after the robbery and passed all background checks.

Wright made her initial court appearance Tuesday and was released on $5,000 bond.

Information from: WTVM-TV, http://www.wtvm.com/

(AP)

FBI Now Involved in FDA Investigation of Georgia Peanut Plant

Special Agent Gregory Jones says the FBI is now "fully involved" in helping the Food and Drug Administration's inquiry into the Peanut Corporation of America's plant based in Blakely, Georgia.

Federal officials are saying that the company was aware it was shipping salmonella-tainted products. Tests have confirmed the contamination.

Politicians are calling for criminal charges.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened hundreds and may be the cause of eight deaths. It has led to one of the country’s biggest food recalls and a wave of lawsuits.

(AP)

FBI arrests former judge for corruption

FBI agents have arrested a former Superior Court judge in South Georgia's Clinch County on fraud, conspiracy and extortion charges. Former judge Brooks Blitch the Third was one of the most powerful politicians in rural Clinch County, near the Florida border. He was a judge for 28-years in the Alapaha Circuit until he resigned in May to avoid state judicial misconduct charges. Now, he's under arrest and on his way to a court in Macon, where he faces an initial appearance after being indicted in a wide-ranging corruption.

Also charged in the case are former state court judge Berrien Sutton, his wife, Lisa Sutton, and two-others, including an attorney. The charges stem from an investigation that revealed secret payments to local officials. Today's arrest is only the latest bad news for the Alapaha Circuit. In recent years, two-Sheriffs, a magistrate judge and a court clerk have pleaded guilty to or demanded their day in court to fight serious charges, not all of them related.

GA bank suspects arrested in Mississippi

The FBI says suspects in a series of bank robberies in metro Atlanta have been arrested, including three in Mississippi. Gregory Jones, head of the FBI in Atlanta, says 22-year-old Shantavia Glass of Lithonia surrendered to DeKalb County police after widespread distribution of photographs following Wednesday's holdup of a Bank of America in Lithonia. McComb, Mississippi police arrested 18-year-old William Berk Harrold of Lithonia, accompanied by a 20-year-old woman, after a traffic stop about 4 a.m. Friday. That led to arrests of 20-year-old Zachery Antonio Harris of Ellenwood and a 16-year-old Duluth male suspect at a McComb hotel. They are wanted in four DeKalb and Gwinnett County robberies over the past two weeks.

(Associated Press)

Fugitive Arrested After 27 Years

The FBI says a man who escaped from a Virginia prison in 1982 has been arrested in Georgia. Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta, says 56-year-old Richard Boucher was taken into custody Wednesday morning on a fugitive warrant in Murray County, along the Tennessee line, where he has been living for most of the past 27 years. Jones says Boucher, using the alias Eric Coleman, was serving a 10-year robbery sentence at the Virginia Department of Corrections Prison in Chesapeake, Va., when he escaped. Jones says Boucher is also charged by Murray County with possession of a firearm by a felon because a rifle was found at his home in Eton, where he was living with his 53-year-old wife, Debbie. She was charged by local authorities with hindering apprehension of a criminal.

(Associated Press)