Chicago pastor Rev. Clarence Smith Jr. has been indicted on charges alleging he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a federal program intended to feed needy children, spending the money on a $142,000 Bentley luxury vehicle and other personal expenses.
Chicago Tribune reports:
The indictment against Smith alleged he defrauded the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program that is administered locally by the Illinois State Board of Education and intended to provide meals for children in impoverished neighborhoods.
As a sponsor of the program, New Life was responsible for feeding children at various locations in the city and billing the state for the services, according to the indictment.
Instead, over a yearlong period beginning in October 2015, Smith vastly inflated the number of meals he was serving, billing the state nearly $1 million that was paid out in two installments in July 2016, according to the charges.
Smith deposited the checks into New Life’s bank accounts and then withdrew it in cash at ATMs or by writing checks to pay for personal expenses, according to the charges.
On July 21, 2016, less than a week after receiving the second check from the state in the amount of $825,695, Smith purchased a 2015 Bentley Flying Spur luxury sedan in suburban Des Plaines using a $142,000 cashier’s check, according to the charges.
Smith hid the fraud by falsely claiming to the state Board of Education that records of how many children he’d fed “had been damaged in a flood and were no longer available,” the indictment said.
At the same time Smith was allegedly overbilling the state for the meals, he was being sued in Cook County Circuit Court by a number of food vendors who alleged he’d stiffed them on bills, court records show.
According to the Chicago Tribune, it’s not the first time that Smith, 45, has been accused of financial malfeasance. Nearly a decade ago, he pleaded guilty in DuPage County to using forged signatures to swindle an elderly man’s estate out of more than $100,000, court records show.
Smith has had problems with issues for a while. Over the years he has filed bankruptcy and been sued by at least two food supply companies for defaulting on contracts, and owes over $8,000 on property taxes.
According to court records in DuPage County, Smith pleaded guilty in 2011 to a felony charge of financial exploitation of the elderly– totaling $106,736. He was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay full restitution to the victim’s estate, records show. He was also given two years of probation, which may be revoked because he’s falling behind in restitution payments.
Smith, meanwhile, continues to actively promote the church on Facebook, posting lengthy videos of himself preaching and urging followers to come to worship. A Facebook post earlier this week appeared to refer to his legal troubles.
“One of the worst things in the world is not to learn from your prior mistakes,” he wrote Monday. “GOD has me doing a self-evaluation on where I messed up prior so I won’t do the same in the future.”
Smith referred questions to his lawyer, Timothy Roellig.
