Reported by Lauren Ohnesorge

A man charged with misdirecting millions of dollars meant for Bibles into diamonds and real estate used a North Carolina shell company to launder the proceeds of his scheme, according to an unsealed federal indictment.

Jason Gerald Shenk, a former resident of Dublin, Georgia, is now being sought on multiple federal charges. 

He is charged with four counts of wire fraud, three counts of international concealment money laundering, 13 counts of concealment money laundering, 21 counts of money laundering involving transactions greater than $10,000, and a single count of failure to file report of a foreign bank account. The charges could mean up to 20 years in prison. 

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said warrants have been issued for Shenk’s arrest.

Shenk targeted religious communities in North Carolina and Ohio, promising to use their funds to distribute Bibles in China, the indictment says. Prosecutors describe how he allegedly obtained more than $33 million from charities in the U.S.

Prosecutors claim that instead of buying Bibles, Shenk spent the money on a $320,000 real estate purchase in Santiago, Chile; paying $1 million to an online sports gambling website that was subsequently shut down due to fraudulent activity; purchasing $850,000 in shares of a privately-held nuclear energy company; buying 16 life insurance policies in various people’s names (totaling more than $4 million); and buying $1 million in diamonds, gold and other precious metals.

Read full report: https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2023/08/01/us-doj-federal-money-laundering-scheme-jason-shenk.amp.html