This past Tuesday, one minister out in New Orleans has officially been brought before a U.S. district court judge and pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, claiming to have stolen close to 900k from his church, its congregation, and its various ministries for nothing more than personal use.
As the executive pastor of First Emmanuel Baptist Church, Dr. Charles J. Southall was slammed with charges back in September of laundering his proceeds via a wire fraud scheme, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The minister, aged 64, has been the man holding the role of lead pastor at the church since back in 1989,
Back in 2019, Southall took a tithe of over $10,000 from one of the members of his church and directly deposited the fund into his personal banking accounts. Between the period of 2016 and 2020, he once again stole multiple donations to the tune of roughly $106,000 from another congregant that was slated to fund charity and improvements to the building but was instead placed into accounts that would fund his personal expenses.
To go even further, Southall utilized another $150,000 of the proceeds from various rental properties owned by the church which were utilized to provide low-income housing, and made use of the funds for his own purposes without making it known to the church, explained the DOJ. He also allegedly schemed to defraud the church again by forcing its properties to be sold off and siphoning a portion of the resulting money away for himself to use.
“In total, Southall improperly caused approximately $537,805.51 of profit from the sale of FEBC-owned real properties located on Amelia Street, Fourth Street, and Baronne Street to be diverted to Southall’s personal benefit improperly and without authorization,” explained the DOJ in its release.
Back in 2013, Southall brought in a consultant to talk about starting another sister school out in Baton Rouge to the church’s Edgar P. Harney Spirit of Excellence Academy. This consultant was paid a total of $220,000, which was all then sent directly to an account that was shared by Southall with the person that he had hired. A portion of those funds was utilized to pay off all of the personal credit card bills accumulated by Southall.
To go along with the payments made to his personal credit cards, Southall utilized more of the almost $900,000 to purchase a car, some tickets, and various other items.
As part of his plea agreement, the pastor is to be made to pay roughly $85,000 in restitution to Spirit of Excellence Academy, repay more than $106,000 to one victim he laundered money from, and another $10,000 to an additional victim. Southall is also looking down the barrel of a 10-year stint in prison, three years of supervised release, and a staggering $250,000 fine. The official sentencing is slated to take place on the 17th of January.