June 12, 2000
FBI investigating pastor over misuse of funds
___JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)--The FBI has subpoenaed financial records of a Florida church whose pastor has admitted to channeling funds to a secret Swiss bank account.
___In a related development, Altus Newell resigned as pastor of Deermeadows Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., May 31.
___The Florida-Times Union reported June 1 that the FBI is investigating claims by Newell, pastor of the Southern Baptist congregation for 10 years, that checks he sent overseas totaling about $184,000 in the church's name were intended for missionaries. Questions arose after Newell confessed to church leaders that receipts he produced to document the gifts were faked.
___An FBI spokesman confirmed to the Jacksonville newspaper that the agency is involved. "We're conducting an investigation to determine if there is a federal violation within the jurisdiction of the FBI," said public-affairs agent Bill Cheek. He declined further comment.
___About 300 church members at a three-hour business meeting May 31 voted to accept Newell's resignation and to pay premiums on his health, life and disability insurance for up to six months. Church members voted down a motion from the floor to grant additional severance pay.
___Newell, 56, has not preached at the church since early April but has continued to draw his $153,000-a-year salary.
___Newell offered to resign the 2,100-member church in April when confronted about checks purportedly for evangelism in Eastern Europe sponsored through the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic.
___He later withdrew his resignation, however, claiming he is disabled because he suffers from severe depression.
___Newell, a former Southern Baptist missionary who served as president of the seminary in Prague in the mid-1980s, when it was located in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, said he and another donor made the series of contributions through the school to help churches in areas where Baptists are persecuted.
___Current leaders at IBTS, however, said there is no such program related to the seminary and that documents acknowledging receipt of funds by school officials were false.
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