EAST DUBLIN, Ga. — A former Dublin man is on the run after the U.S. Attorney's Office accused him of stealing more than $30 million from charities.
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating Jason Shenk for a string of alleged financial crimes between 2010 and 2019.
According to the US Attorney's Office, a lot of the money went to what used to be Shenk's family farm. According to the Georgia Corporations Division, Heartland Plantations, LLC, went out of business a couple years ago.
The company's last regular filing year was 2021, and it formally dissolved in October 2022.
Two months later, the 20-page indictment came down in US District Court, alleging Shenk took more than $33 million from charities in North Carolina and Ohio. It goes on to say he took millions from individuals donating to his cause.
The 20-page indictment says the money was supposed to help Shenk make and distribute Bibles to people in China, but it wasn't used for missionary work.
Instead, the US Attorney's Office believes it went to other things, like $7 million for the family farm, another $4 million to purchase life insurance for 16 different people, and another $850,000 to purchase shares in a nuclear energy company.
The indictment also mentions a $320,000 purchase of a property in Santiago, Chile.
Shenk faces several charges, including 21 counts of money laundering transactions over $10,000; four counts of wire fraud; three counts of international concealment money laundering; and failure to report a foreign bank account.
The indictment also alleges Shenk renounced his US citizenship in 2016 to get around federal financial reporting requirements. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
The US Attorney's Office says if you think you donated to Shenk, you should call federal authorities at (478) 752-6810. They say you should call that same number if you have any information on his whereabouts.