To Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Jason Gerald Shenk was a religious missionary spreading the phrase of God abroad. With their monetary assist, he would ship Bibles and different Christian literature to China, the place Christianity has lengthy been curtailed by the Chinese Communist Party.

But for at the least 9 years, federal prosecutors stated, Mr. Shenk has used greater than $30 million in donations from these communities to fund his personal lavish life-style — full with diamonds and gold, sports activities playing and a private funding portfolio that features properties in Santiago, Chile, in addition to shares of a non-public nuclear power firm.

Federal prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Shenk, 45, for defrauding charities and people out of greater than $30 million, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia stated in a statement. A grand jury in Georgia indicted him on prices together with 4 counts of wire fraud and over a dozen counts of cash laundering, in response to court docket paperwork unsealed on Tuesday.

A federal investigation into Mr. Shenk’s whereabouts is underway along with authorities in different nations, stated Barry L. Paschal, a spokesman for the Southern District of Georgia. Prosecutors stated Mr. Shenk renounced his citizenship in 2016 to keep away from reporting his funds, and he’s believed to be residing exterior of the United States. It is just not clear if Mr. Shenk has a lawyer.

Numerous the person donors Mr. Shenk has been accused of defrauding have been of the Amish and Mennonite communities in Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada, Mr. Paschal stated.

Mr. Shenk was charged in December and faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted. He would additionally should forfeit any belongings associated to the offenses and would face “substantial financial penalties,” prosecutors stated.

Jill E. Steinberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, stated within the assertion that Mr. Shenk’s alleged actions have been an egregious breach of belief.

“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,” she stated.

From April 2010 to July 2019, Mr. Shenk has been accused of orchestrating a fancy scheme to redirect the Bible funds he acquired from charities for his private use. According to the indictment, he hid the place the earnings have been from by laundering them by way of financial institution accounts in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States that have been registered underneath shell firms within the British Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Samoan Islands.

Prosecutors stated they discovered dozens of cash transfers throughout quite a few financial institution accounts that Mr. Shenk had remodeled the span of about three years. They consider the transfers have been meant to cover the funds’ origins as donations from people and non secular charities.

For 9 years, Mr. Shenk acquired $22 million from one unnamed charity that donated cash abroad to offer help to poor households or these impacted by pure disasters, prosecutors stated. He claimed he would use the funds to distribute Bibles in China, in response to the indictment. Prosecutors stated Mr. Shenk additionally obtained $10 million from one other unnamed charity that supported victims of human trafficking and missionaries around the globe with medical payments.

Numerous people additionally donated on to financial institution accounts managed by Mr. Shenk, prosecutors added.

One checking account in Georgia affiliated with Mr. Shenk is owned by MorningStar Ministries, a Christian group based mostly in South Carolina, prosecutors stated. Mr. Shenk, who, together with two family, was approved to make use of the account, transferred over $1.5 million from the MorningStar Ministries financial institution to 2 accounts owned by his shell firms in Singapore, in response to court docket paperwork. The two family weren’t indicted.

MorningStar Ministries, in response to its web site, organizes Christian conferences and occasions around the globe. However, it’s neither registered as a authorized entity in Georgia nor a charity group with the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors stated.

Neither Mr. Shenk nor members of his household may very well be reached for touch upon Thursday. MorningStar Ministries didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The court docket will appoint a lawyer to Mr. Shenk as soon as he’s arrested and arraigned, stated Mr. Paschal. Arraignments sometimes happen inside a number of weeks when a defendant is within the nation, he added.