Federal agents are hunting for a former Georgia man who they believe defrauded two charities and individual donors of more than $30 million. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Jason Shenk targeted Christian givers, particularly those in Amish and Mennonite communities, in schemes that purported to spread Bibles and other Christian literature in communist China.
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,” said U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg. “This case alleges an egregious breach of that trust at the expense of multiple charities and individual donors.”
A recently unsealed federal indictment details more than 40 charges against Shenk, including counts of money laundering and wire fraud. In addition to deceiving individual donors, the 45-year-old allegedly convinced one charity to send him $22 million and another to entrust him with $10 million to advance his supposed Bible distribution mission. Shenk, however, steered that money through bank accounts of shell corporations and spent it on sports gambling, gold and diamonds, stocks, his family farm, real estate in Chile, and more.
Court documents suggest Shenk tried to cover his tracks by nurturing a reputation as a missionary involved in China and Southeast Asia, using claims of Chinese government persecution to avoid oversight, and falsifying spreadsheets and distribution lists in reports to the charities he defrauded. In addition, he lied to international banks and even renounced his U.S. citizenship to avoid federal financial reporting requirements.
Shenk is currently evading authorities. However, warrants are now issued for his arrest. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, property forfeiture, and significant fines.
No organization is fully impenetrable from bad actors. However, ECFA has long endeavored to help ministries guard the trust donors place in them by taking steps to avoid fraud like Shenk’s. For example, in our commentary on Standard 4 of the Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™ we suggest written progress reports, required financial statements, as well as mandatory audits and inspections as some methods of maintaining ministry integrity when making grants to partners abroad.
ECFA suggests churches and ministries make use of the following ECFA resources on this matter including recent webinars on “Key Considerations When Operating Internationally” and “Fraud Case Studies & Controls to Protect Your Organization.” We also recommend exploration of our e-book on “6 Essentials of International Financial Activity for Ministries.”