NC donors gave money to send Bibles to China — but it was all a scam, IRS says
Authorities are searching internationally for a man accused of money laundering and fraud to the tune of $30 million. Court records show he promised to use the money to send Bibles to China and scammed religious groups, including Amish and Mennonite communities in both North Carolina and Ohio.
Jason Gerald Shenk, 45, of Georgia, is charged with fraud, according to a news statement from the Internal Revenue Service’s Investigative Department Charlotte-based field office. He’s accused of diverting funds intended for a Christian ministry in China to a variety of shell corporations including one in North Carolina, investigators say.
Shenk obtained the donations from faith-based charities and individual donors in the state, according to investigators. He claimed to be a missionary and promised to fund the production and distribution of Bibles and Christian literature in China.
Shenk did this from April 2010 to July 2019, and reportedly renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 to avoid federal financial reporting requirements, the federal indictment says. Overall, Shenk obtained approximately $22 million from one charitable organization and its donors, and approximately $10 million from another charity and its donors, along with other individual donations.
He used the money to spend $1 million on online sports gambling, purchase equity shares in a private nuclear energy company, pay for 16 life insurance policies in different names, buy diamonds, gold and precious metals, and to purchase real estate in Santiago, Chile, according to the Criminal Investigations Unit of the IRS.
The Criminal Investigations Unit’s Charlotte field office is responsible for investigating federal crimes in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Shenk 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 one count of failure to file report of foreign bank account, according to the federal indictment.
Anyone who may have sent money directly or indirectly to Shenk or has information regarding his known whereabouts should contact federal authorities at 478-752-6810, according to the IRS.
