In the name of Bentley Just how many people use the word of the Gospel
to scam money from other people?
Reverend Clarence Smith Junior was the perfect example of a wolf in sheep's clothing or,
in this case, a thief in priest’s robes.
Smith’s reign of holy greed came to an end when locals began questioning his lavish lifestyle.
Other than those crazy TV pastors like Joel Olsteen and Kenneth Copeland, there was no
reason why a North Lawndale, Chicago priest would be rolling around in a $140,000 dollar
sports car.
So much for humbleness, right?
Specifically, Smith bought himself a $142,000 Bentley with the money he stole from the state
of Illinois.
Through a not-so-elaborate scheme involving meal plans for the poor and needy.
In total, so-called Reverend Smith stole over $800,000 thousand dollars from the state of
Illinois, money that was supposed to go to the needy.
Still, through it all, Smith maintained his high-ground.
He told his Facebook followers to never look down on those people in need because, quote
“because God never looked down on us.”
Upon this rock, I will hatch my scheme So how exactly did Smith do this?
Smith’s scheme took advantage of state sponsored food programs that would refund expenses paid
by churches like the New Life Impact Church.
The program was called the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
New Life church was recognized as a participant in the program.
They would feed children and needy folks all around Chicago and then bill the state for
their expenses.
But he eventually withdrew the money in cash at ATMs and wrote checks for his personal
expenses.
While New Life Church DID in fact provide some meals to needy people, Smith grossly
over exaggerated the number of meals served.
He would say that he served a lot more meals than he actually served, and he would simply
send a giant bill to the state.
The meal payments were paid to New Life church in two installments in the summer of 2016.
The expenses covered fake meals dating all the way back to October of 2015.
According to the charges, Smith then withdrew the cash from ATMs and cut himself personal
checks from the church’s bank account.
A week after he received more than $800,000 thousand dollars, Smith went ahead and bought
himself that shiny new Bentley.
It was the car that got his congregation suspicious, along with the people that were simply living
around the church.
One question we have is, why are scammers this dumb?
Why wouldn’t he just pocket the money and not be flashy?
Why are any Pastors supposed to be flashy?!
Local resident Ravin Cosey told reporters, quote “He was coming around in Jordans and
Bentleys and new cars, and I'm like, wait a minute, pastors don't do that.”
Yep, Ravin got it right, there was plenty of reason to suspect Smith of foul play.
Especially when the pastor was rolling around in a flashy new sports car while his church
saw little to no improvements.
Bad Priest, Worse Criminal While Smith was busy ripping off the state
of Illinois, he was also in the middle of several lawsuits from numerous other food
vendors that he owed money to.
In 2015, Reinhart Foodservice won a half a million dollar settlement against Smith for
failing to make payments.
In 2016, C&C Dairy Incorporated claimed that Smith owed them roughly $45,000 dollars for
various dairy products he had bought and never paid for.
So he was just ripping everyone off around him?
Did he triple dip and sell the milk products too?!
The Sins of His Past 2015 wasn’t the beginning of Clarence Smith’s
criminal career.
In 2001, Smith forged documents that gave him access to the bank account of an elderly
man who had passed away a few months earlier.
Smith simply began cutting himself checks from the dead man’s account totaling over
$100,000 dollars!
He pled guilty to the scheme in 2011 and served six months in jail, and he was ordered to
repay the full amount to the victim’s family.
Did he ever pay the family back?
Nope!
At the time of his arrest for the New Life scam, Smith still owed money to the victim’s
family.
The only reason he was allowed to travel was because he was doing so called ‘church business.’
In 2012, Smith claimed to only have $20 dollars cash to his name when creditors were looking
for the roughly $80,000 thousand dollars he still owed the family.
He filed for personal bankruptcy, but he was actually denied.
Did this past debt drive him to do the New Life scam?
Was this the so-called ‘solution’ to his financial situation or was this just something
he did because scamming is in his nature?
State Incompetence The glaring question probably on your mind
may be HOW did no one notice his past?
How did someone who was a supposed pastor whose done six months behind bars qualify
for a state sponsored meal program?
Technically, the church was classified as a daycare.
Illinois’s Child and Adult Care Food Program supplies meals to children and adults enrolled
in daycare outside of school.
And it turns out that there IS no background check required when someone representing an
organization applies to be part of the food care program.
But they DO ask the right questions, but they just don’t follow up.
Basically, they asked, “Hey, have you or anyone that works here committed a crime?”
and Smith just wrote down basically, “Of course not!
Praise Jesus!”
The ironic thing is that the application specially asks about fraud or anything that may show
a lack of business integrity.
Smith simply just wrote no on his application.
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses However, the lack of background checks didn’t
stop federal agencies from questioning where the money was going.
The Illinois State Board of Education, part of the Federal Department of Education started
hounding Smith for documentation proving where the money was going.
They wanted proof that he served the meals he claimed he served.
Between 2015 and 2016, the Board of Education tried to conduct reviews of the New Life Impact
Church.
However, Smith was ready with a year's worth of excuses.
Here’s what happened each time federal authorities tried to reach him.
In August of 2015 he claimed to be out of town.
In September of the same year, it was the same story, except he came up with a doctor’s
excuse.
In November, he told authorities he was sick, something he was able to use all the way until
May of 2016.
May came and Smith tried to cancel again.
But this time, the Board of Education refused to reschedule again.
They weren’t playing anymore.
So Smith doubled down.
He claimed his church team was “new”, and couldn’t help with the review while
he was, guess what, out of town again.
Finally, a year later in August of 2016, the Board of Education threw in the towel and
kicked New Life Church off the program.
By the end of August, 2016, Smith owed the Board of Education $3.3 Million dollars.
The Great Flood But he did eventually meet with authorities.
Smith's absolute best excuse was that a ‘flood’ came through and destroyed ALL of his important
documents.
He wanted to blame a giant flood for his misfortunes!
The Church of Social Media Smith dug his heels firmly into the sand.
He denied any involvement in his scam and continued to promote The New Life Impact Church
on Social Media.
He continued to post selfies and videos telling his followers to come to church.
In the middle of his scam, in 2015, Smith posted on Facebook this precious quote.
“We can no longer impress the community with talk, but IMPACT the community with our
walk.”
Yep, all this while buying a Bentley to drive around one of the poorest neighborhoods of
Chicago.
Interestingly enough, on Smith’s twitter account, he posted pictures of himself throughout
the years where he’s shown that he had been steadily losing weight.
And yes, he was still pretending to preach the Gospel and doesn’t mention any of his
crimes.
Then again, that’s to be expected.
Who talks about the worst of themselves on social media?
Since Smith’s charges in January of 2020, New Life Impact Church has been scrubbed from
the internet.
However, a Google search of the church does display an image of the small brick building
decorated with a faded white banner.
The word ‘ministries’ can just barely be made out.
Here’s what’s next!