A man supposed to use $30 million by religious groups in Christian extension in China now sought

On Aug 10, 2023

Clergy arrive for the funeral of the late head of the underground Catholic Church in Shanghai, Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang, as he lies in a funeral home in Shanghai on March 22, 2014. Thousands of mourners packed the funeral home to bid farewell to the "underground" Catholic Bishop whose faith, they said, led him to endure decades of suffering at the hands of China's ruling Communist Party. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Federal prosecutors are seeking a man charged in the misuse of more than $30 million donated by religious groups and individuals for Christian ministry in China.

As AP reported the religious groups donners include an Ohio-based group receiving donations from Amish and Mennonite communities.

Jason Gerald Shenk, 45, formerly of Dublin, Georgia, is charged in a recently unsealed federal indictment in Georgia with wire fraud, money laundering and failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.

Prosecutors said Shenk got more than $30 million from faith-based charities and individual donors, primarily from religious communities in Ohio and North Carolina, promising to use the money to produce and distribute Bibles and other Christian literature in China.

Instead, prosecutors allege, he used a lot of it for his own purposes, such as payments to the company running his family farm, buying diamonds and precious metals, buying life insurance policies in various people’s names, online sports gambling, among other things.

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