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Louisiana Pastor Pleads Guilty to Nearly $900-k Fraud

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Charles J. Southall, III, a New Orleans pastor who was charged initially for unlawfully transferring $100K to his private accounts, has pleaded guilty to laundering close to $900K.

As reported in an earlier article by Ministry Watch, the original charge accused the Louisiana pastor of illegally wiring approximately $100,000 from a bank account to an individual investment account. 

According to court documents, Southall has served as the Executive Pastor of First Emanuel Baptist Church (FEBC) since around 1989. At the time of writing this article, the church’s website still lists him as the Executive Pastor.

Utilizing his role, Southall solicited tithes and donations from several members and diverted the money to his individual use. For example, according to one victim, he requested a $10,000 tithe from them, which he later deposited into his personal financial accounts and used to pay for individual expenses. 

FEBC has maintained houses of worship in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and owned multiple parcels of property. The church also created housing ministry entities to provide low-income New Orleans residents affordable housing. 

Another victim claimed that Southall solicited multiple donations from them for various charitable purposes and the improvement of FEBC’s New Orleans building. He then redirected approximately $106,408.38 of the donation funds to personal financial accounts under his control and paid unrelated, private expenses without donor knowledge or authorization.

Southall rerouted approximately $537,805.51 of profit from selling FEBC-owned properties to his private accounts without authorization. He and others also created the Spirit of Excellence Academy to operate a charter school in New Orleans and later secured funding to create an affiliated school in Baton Rouge. Although Spirit of Excellence received funding in the form of grants and loans, the Baton Rouge school never opened. 

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According to the Department of Justice, Southall hired someone to consult in creating Spirit of Excellence Academy – Baton Rouge. He compensated the consultant $220,600 between September 2013 and September 2017 and deposited the funds into their jointly controlled financial accounts. 

In addition, Southall regularly diverted a portion of the funds paid to the consultant for his own private use, including by transferring some of the funds from one or more of the accounts he controlled jointly with them to other financial accounts under his sole control or using them to pay his personal credit card bills. 

In total, Southall obtained approximately $889,565.86 through his fraudulent schemes. He then engaged in a series of financial transactions using the proceeds of the criminally derived proceeds he got that included: negotiating a check for $11,841 to purchase tickets; using funds originating from the sale of the Fourth Street property of $100,000 to open and fund a JPMC individual investment account for himself; negotiating a cashier’s check for $95,000 to purchase a vehicle, and negotiating a cashier’s $10,764.11 check for the down payment of another vehicle.

As part of his guilty plea, Southall agreed to pay restitution to Spirit of Excellence Academy or its designee in the amount of $85,351.97, to FEBC for $687,805.51; $10,000 to the first victim mentioned in this article; and $106,408.38 to the second victim mentioned.

He faces a maximum imprisonment of ten years, up to three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 17, 2023, at 10:00 am.

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Jessica Eturralde

Jessica Eturralde is a military wife of 18 years and mother of three who serves as a freelance writer, TV host, and filmmaker. Bylines include Yahoo, Huffington Post, OC16TV.

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