A middle-aged missionary is being sought by feds for allegedly orchestrating a scheme that saw him misdirect more than $33million in donations meant for bibles – and instead spending it on a slew of personal splurges and illegal sports betting.
Now considered a fugitive, 45-year-old Jason Gerald Shenk is wanted on multiple federal charges in relation to the alleged plot, which officials in his home state of Georgia claim was carried out over the course of nine years.
During that span, between 2010 and 2019, agents say Shenk – who lives on a sprawling potato farm that’s been in his family for years – took the sum from several Christian charities, under the guise it would be spent on bible distribution.
Instead, Shenk allegedly spent it on personal effects such as diamonds and precious metals, gambling, and roughly $7million on his family farm, which officials in Georgia say went under in 2022, shortly after its last tax filing the year before.
Two months later, feds filed documents in the Peach State’s Southern District court that laid bare the preacher’s supposed scheme.
Since that filing more than half a year ago, officials have failed to locate Shenk, who incorporated his farm company, Heartland Plantations, in 2010. He faces up to 20 years in prison and ‘substantial financial penalties’ if convicted.
Now considered a fugitive, 45-year-old Jason Gerald Shenk is wanted on multiple federal charges in relation to an alleged plot saw him misdirect more than $33million in donations over the course of nine years. Feds in his home state of Georgia claim took the money under the guise it would be spent on bibles, but instead spent the money on himself
Shenk, seen here third from left, is pictured standing outside the farm with fellow staffers at some point before it dissolved in December 2022. Two months later, feds would file an indictment that laid bare the missionary’s alleged scheme -exploits that were further elaborated on Tuesday in a statement from the state attorney
In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia decried Shenk’s alleged actions as ‘an egregious breach’ of trust – and announced that a warrant for his arrest had been issued.
The announcement added to the December indictment feds initially aired against Shenk – in which he was hit with charges that included four counts of wire fraud and three counts of international concealment money laundering.
The Tuesday statement also revealed some of the religious rancher’s outrageous – and as now alleged – spending, including some $1million fed said was spent on diamonds and previous metals, and $320,000 on real estate in Chile.
Another $4 million, fed said, was spent on 16 separate life insurance policies, while $850,000 was redirected toward shares of an unnamed, ‘private US nuclear company.’
State attorneys added that a further $820,000 was allocated toward the phony missionary’s credit card payments – while more than $1 million was deposited in an unspecified online sports betting site that has since been shutdown for fraud.
US Attorney Jill E. Steinberg wrote specifically that the ‘case alleges an egregious breach of that trust at the expense of multiple charities and individual donors.’
She added: ‘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.’
The indictment – which has already been public for almost seven months – went into further detail about the alleged lengths Shenk took to cover his tracks during the duration of the alleged scheme, which fed say was carried out during a period of time around when Heartland Plantations was created as an LLC in early 2010.
The main building on Shenk’s farm is seen here. Officials say the LLC presiding over the facility – created in 2010 – went under in 2022, after failing to file a tax return the year before
During that span, agents say Shenk – who lived and worked on a sprawling potato farm that’s been in his family for five generations – spent more than $30million received from Christian charities on thins such as diamonds, gambling, and real estate, and roughly $7million on the now-defunct family farm, located in Dublin, Georgia
Set on some 27,000 irrigated acres in Dublin, the farm still stands today, but Shenk for months has been nowhere to be found
Other crops that had been produced the site included sweet corn, canning peas, green beans, and soybeans, according to the farm’s website
Then, as early as April 2010, prosecutors wrote Shanks set on on his scheme – whereby he obtained over $33million from charities in the US based on his promise that he would ‘use the money for the specific purpose of producing and distributing Bibles and Christian literature’, specifically in China.
Along the way, feds claim Shenk directed the funds to a variety of shell corporations – which each had bank accounts stationed around the globe – to ‘conceal the nature of the transactions.’
Taking great pains to fly under federal officials’ radar, Shenk allegedly sent fabricated spreadsheets containing bogus statistics about how many bibles were distributed to specific Chinese provinces to the charities he was scamming.
All the while, prosecutors wrote that Shenk repeatedly and systematically lied to international banks about who he was and how much money he and his family had.
To avoid financial reporting requirements under federal law, feds claim Shenk even renounced his US citizenship, a move made in 2016 that officials say was motivated by his desire to keep his plot under wraps.
As a result, Shenk – who feds said was able to keep the scheme afloat for the better part of a decade – faces a laundry list of charges if and when he is apprehended.
They include the four aforementioned counts of wire fraud and international concealment money laundering, as well as 13 additional 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.
Warrants pertaining to those charges have been issued for his arrest, which fed say will likely involve extradition given the unspecified property he is said to now own in South America – at a development known as ‘Galt’s Gulch’ in Santiago that’s known as a hotspot for fugitives.
Barry Paschal of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia told The Daily Beast Tuesday, as the search for the still at large missionary man continued: ‘He could be anywhere.’
‘We think we might know where he is. We aren’t at liberty to say where we think he is, but we think we might know.’
Their investigation is still ongoing. Despite being a fugitive, Shenk is still considered innocent unless and until found guilty in court, feds said Tuesday.