BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA SCHOOL SYSTEM EMPLOYEE FACES THEFT CHARGES

A trusted employee with the East Baton Rouge Parish School System was arrested on December 8, 2009 after she allegedly padded her own bank account through private information from fellow workers.
Authorities said Terry Jenkins-Williams, 39, used her job as a payroll worker to gain access to part-time employee bank account information. She found part-time workers who only worked a few times a year, according to a spokesperson for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.
She's accused of skimming from their paychecks or creating fake time sheets for them and funneling that money directly to her checking account. Investigators believe Jenkins-Williams began fudging numbers in October 2006. The total amount of money from fabricated hours added up to $10,423.61.
"If you look at the grand scheme of things, we have over 6,000 employees and it's unfortunate that one employee would bring a bad name to the school system," said Chris Trahan, a school district spokesperson.
Police cracked the case after a substitute teacher claimed she hadn't been paid for working last month. Jenkins-Williams is charged with four felonies and remains in jail on $30,000 bond.

FULLERTON, CALIFORNIA PASTOR ACCUSED OF SELLING STUDENT VISAS

 A judge agreed on December 23,2009 to electronic monitoring for a Fullerton pastor facing federal charges for allegedly using a religious university as a front to sell student visas that netted him thousands of dollars a month.
Samuel Chai Cho Oh, the owner of California Union University, surrendered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Tuesday, according to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
Oh, who is also the pastor of the Union Church on the university's campus, is accused in a criminal complaint of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted, Kice said.
Oh, 65, made his initial court appearance this afternoon before U.S. District Judge Marc L. Goldman, who agreed to home confinement but ordered him to post a $30,000 bond.
Defense attorney Adriaan F. Van Der Capellen requested that his client be released without having to post bail, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Keenan said he wanted some sort of guarantee that Oh will appear in court because he has contacts in South Korea.
Van Der Capellen surrendered Oh's passport after the hearing. The attorney said Oh could not post bail because the government has seized most of his assets.
He was hospitalized for high blood pressure Tuesday before being cleared to stay overnight in the Santa Ana jail, Van Der Capellen said.
"He's a good man, an honest man," Van Der Capellen said before the hearing.
If there was a scheme to sell student visas at the university, Oh was not aware of it, Van Der Capellen said. The Korean-born Oh's English is "rough," Van Der Capellen said.
He needed an interpreter in court today.
Oh, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in Garden Grove the past 13 years, is a Presbyterian minister who has traveled all over the world with his ministry, Van Der Capellen said.
The government alleges that Oh collected $40,000 to $50,000 monthly from people posing as foreign students. The "students" were given forms that allowed them to go to a U.S. Embassy or consulate abroad and apply for a student visa, Kice said.
The university's federal certification was revoked Oct. 18, but until then, the school at 905 Euclid St. was authorized to accept foreign students pursuing religious and biblical studies as well as learning English as a second language and Oriental medicine, Kice said.
During their 10-month investigation, ICE agents arrested and questioned more than 30 foreign nationals who claimed they paid Oh anywhere from $600 to more than $10,000 for the documents allowing them to get student visas and sometimes bogus degrees, Kice said.
Kuy Nam Ko, who was an Interpol fugitive, is named in court papers as a witness. Ko, who was arrested Aug. 13 by ICE agents, was wanted in South Korea for an alleged embezzlement scheme in 2003, according to ICE.
He was accused of fleeing to the United States with $650,000 from the sale of a church in Seoul, according to court papers.
Ko told authorities he met Oh in 2007 through a close friend in South Korea, and he worked for Oh as a pastor at his church on the university campus, according to ICE. Ko told investigators he never saw any students or teachers on campus and thought it was a fraud, according to the ICE official.
Many of the university's students told agents they never attended class nor saw any teachers or other students on campus, Kice said. One man said he received a bachelor's degree in education and detailed to agents how Oh allegedly staged a phony graduation ceremony on campus last May, Kice said.
ICE agents paid an unannounced visit to the university March 26 and found little evidence of scholastic activity, according to court papers. While waiting for Oh to arrive, the agents toured the campus and found 14 mostly empty classrooms, according to court documents.
The agents only found an English-as-a-second-language class and a computer class in session, and both classes were associated with the church, according to court papers. A schedule on the bulletin board was from 2007, according to authorities.
Federal agents seized computers and more than 300 student files from the university in October, Kice said. The agency has also seized more than $400,000 in two separate bank accounts maintained by Oh and an associate, she said.
Oh accepted mostly Korean students, but the university also had foreign nationals from more than 20 countries.

GROSSE POINTE WOODS, MICHIGAN CHURCH BOOKKEEPER PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLEMENT

A volunteer bookkeeper at a Grosse Pointe Woods church pleaded guilty on December 17, 2009 to four counts of embezzlement charges that could result in up to 15 years in prison.
Frederick Anthony Petz, 59, of Grosse Pointe Woods was charged in September for taking more than $90,000 from Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church. He will be sentenced in Wayne Circuit Court Jan. 25.
Petz had been an unpaid bookkeeper given total control of church finances, according to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Petz also worked for Renaissance Vicariate, a group of 26 parishes that collaborate on Catholic programs and services in the Grosse Pointes, Harper Woods and Detroit.
Discrepancies in operating accounts from 2007 and 2008 were reported to the Catholic Archdiocese in the spring by the church's new pastor, Gary Smetanka. Grosse Pointe Woods Police were notified in May when an audit by the Archdiocese traced missing funds back to Petz, according to the prosecutor.

PONTIAC, MICHIGAN CHURCH VOLUNTEER ACCUSED OF THEFT

A 71-year-old church volunteer accused of stealing thousands of dollars from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Pontiac was charged on December 22, 2009 in the crime.

Salley Crake entered not guilty pleas in a Pontiac courtroom Tuesday to felony charges of embezzlement and larceny.
Police said Crake had been stealing hundreds of dollars once a week from the church located at 46408 Woodward Ave.
At the time of her arrest on Monday, she had $800 on her, said Pontiac police Sgt. Steve Troy.
Church officials suspected someone was stealing from the collection plate when it was being counted back in November and set up surveillance cameras.
Police said Crake was caught her on surveillance video taking the money and stuffing it down her pants.
However, investigators said that they believe that Crake may have been stealing money from the plate long before anyone at the church began to notice.
The Rev. James Kean said he was not aware of any previous issues with Crake when he started at the church in July.
"The pain of realizing this is someone you know, the pain of realizing that this is going to be and have a huge impact on the community," Kean told Local 4.
Crake was ordered to stay out of Pontiac and not to have any communication with the church. She will be back in court on Dec. 29 for another hearing.
"We prayed for the person involved in this. We prayed for what's going to happen when the details started to come to light," said Kean.

WHEN CRIME PAYS IN DAVIS, UTAH

At times, it sounded like an acceptance speech from a highly decorated veteran educator receiving an award.

Susan Ross, former director of federal programs for the Davis School District, on December 14, 2009, spoke of her love of teaching and of children. She had devoted her career to offering them the best possible education, she said.
But this was no acceptance speech. Ross was addressing a federal judge at her sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of felony money laundering. Ross and her husband, John Ross, are believed to have stolen nearly $4 million in federal education funds in an embezzlement scheme that involved selling pirated textbooks to the school district at inflated prices. A federal indictment said the Rosses set up a company to supply the district with photocopies of books for as much as $80 each when they normally would retail for $15-$25.
Susan Ross, who prosecutors said served a larger role in the commission of the crimes, was sentenced to 36 months of probation, with the first six to be served in home confinement. U.S District Judge Clark Waddoups also ordered that Ross perform 3,000 hours of community service, pay a $10,000 fine and $350,115 in restitution.
Incredibly, Ross will not serve a day in prison, even though sentencing guidelines allowed for a maximum 10-year prison term.
In an unusual step, U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman issued a statement following the sentencing that said, in part, "People who abuse a position of trust, profit substantially, and do so in a totally illegal manner should face more than probation. If you consider the sentence of probation in this case, apparently crime does pay."
Indeed.
While Susan Ross was able to produce several letters from acquaintances and former students who credited her with encouraging them to pursue college educations, for a number of years she systematically embezzled federal Title I funds intended to assist low-achieving students master math and reading and help them meet state standards in core academic subjects. A prosecutor said in court that between 2000 and 2005, the Rosses had pocketed 39 percent of the Title I education funds appropriated to the Davis School District for those years, a figure Susan Ross' defense counsel disputes.
Regardless, the funds were not used for their intended purposes. While Susan Ross may have inspired many students to seek higher education, disadvantaged students, minorities and students with disabilities were short-changed of opportunities due to the Rosses' crimes.
Earlier this year, John Ross pleaded guilty to one count of placing fraudulent copyrights on stolen texts, a misdemeanor. He was ordered to pay a $500 fine. The pair also was ordered to forfeit $800,000 from their bank accounts, two vehicles and homes in Layton, South Weber and Mountain Green.
Neither John Ross, who was a federal grant specialist for the school district, nor Susan Ross was a career criminal, which undoubtedly figured into their sentences. But these offenses were not the stuff of a one-time lapse in judgment. They were crimes systematically perpetrated over a number of years. That aggravating factor should have weighed in favor of prison time for Susan Ross, if not also a brief incarceration for her husband.

FORMER PASTOR IN YORK, PENNSYLVANIA PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLEMENT

The Rev. Vincent Navorro Meekins Jr., former pastor at Small Memorial AME Zion Church in York, pleaded guilty on December 20, 2009 to stealing nearly $18,000 from the church in April.

Meekins, 55 and now living in Norfolk, Va., was sentenced to five years probation after entering his plea in York County Common Pleas Court for failing to make required disposition of funds received. He faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for the third-degree felony.
Three months after Meekins was not reassigned to the city church, elders uncovered the theft of insurance funds meant to repair the church roof which had been damaged in February. The discovery came when a bank informed them of a $126 overdraft in a previously unknown and unauthorized church bank account.
Upon contacting the insurance company, they learned Meekins already had filed a claim, met with inspectors and adjusters and deposited the $17,955 insurance check into a new bank account in the church's name, according to the complaint.
York City Police detectives determined Meekins opened the account with himself as the sole signer. An audit of the account's monthly statements showed the insurance deposit on April 27 followed by numerous withdrawals in May and June, leading to the overdraft.
Monday, Meekins was ordered to make restitution of $17,955 to the church's insurance carrier. His probation will be transferred to Virginia and is to become non-reporting probation when the restitution is paid in full.

As of Monday afternoon, the York County Clerk of Courts office had no record of any restitution being paid in the case.
Meekins had remained free on $20,000 unsecured bail since his arrest in September.

DETROIT, MICHIGAN MAN FOUND GUILTY IN MORTGAGE SCHEME TO SELL CHURCH

A Detroit man has been found guilty in a $149,000 church mortgage scheme.
Wayne County authorities say a jury convicted 46-year-old Tracy Carmichael of embezzlement, forgery, money laundering and other charges on December 14, 2009. Sentencing is Jan. 5.
Authorities say Carmichael attempted to sell the Temple of God Deliverance church on Detroit's east side in 2007. The church pastor was alerted to the scheme when his congregation was served with eviction papers.
Defense attorney Allan Saroki says Carmichael claimed to have an agreement with the pastor to help obtain a loan on the property.
Carmichael was convicted in federal court in 2004 on 17 counts of aiding in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns.