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Harvest Ministries president, CEO indicted
What started as a plan to resurrect not only a downtown building, but the entire Fort Scott economy, is now looking quite grim.
Harvest Ministries International Organization Inc. President and CEO Paul House and his wife, Charolette, have been indicted by a U.S. District Court grand jury in St. Louis, Mo., on two charges relating to bankruptcy fraud.
The indictment, filed on Dec. 15, 2010, states that House and his wife "knowingly and fraudulently did make a false declaration, certificate, verification and statement under penalty of perjury in relation to a bankruptcy petition" by stating that they had no regular income and that in 2006 and 2007 their gross income was zero.
The indictment states that they "received regular income" and "received gross income in excess of $25,000" from a church located in Union, Mo., and Harvest World Outreach Ministry, a ministry they operated, as a subdivision of Harvest Ministries International Organization Inc.
"My reaction is ... I'm not guilty of what they said, but I can't make any other comment on that because the judge has given orders that nobody is to talk about it," House said during a phone interview Thursday with The Tribune.
Jerrod Handly, former General Secretary for Harvest Ministries International Organization, said the news of the indictment comes as no surprise.
"I knew the feds were investigating a lot of things," Handly said.
Handly said that several individuals who remain close to House continue to keep him updated on the happenings of Harvest Ministries International, although he walked away from the organization due to disagreements with House's business practices.
Despite his current legal situation, House said he plans to continue working toward restoring the Western Insurance buildings, located at 8 and 14 E. 1st St., into a full medical diagnostic center which would also offer treatment for some cancers, kidney dialysis, and other regimens which are currently unavailable in Bourbon County.
"We were starting to make progress when this junk come up," he said. "We still plan to do what we started out to do, but we have to deal with this right now."
According to Handly, there never was a plan to build a medical center in Fort Scott.
"That's all it is. It's him. There is no organization there are no members ... It's all bogus. There is nothing," Handly said.
Although House is optimistic, the future of the Western Insurance buildings does not appear to be improving, nor do House's business and financial practices. According to a name search on the PACER Service Center website, House has filed bankruptcy six times in the past 15 years. House and his wife Charolette filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition -- which enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts -- in 1990, 1998, and again in 2008.
They also filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- a liquidation of all debts -- in 1999 and 2005. House and Colleen House filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in 1995. House told The Tribune he could not comment on his prior bankruptcies.
House has also been involved in several legal battles. According to Case.net, an automated case management system for the state of Missouri, House was taken to court twice -- the first time in 1991 and the second in 1992 -- in regard to property taxes by Robert Leggett, a collector of revenue. In addition, Capital One Bank filed suit against House in 2005, which resulted in a judgment where House was ordered to pay $2,105. This judgment has not yet been paid, according to Case.net.
House's financial history also includes several instances of not paying for services, according to Handly. He said the Harvest Ministries International Organization Inc. website (www.harvestministries.org) was removed due to a lack of payment to a board member who designed the website. House said shutting down of the website was "not authorized."
"Paul never paid for the website, never paid the man for his work and his labors," Handly said. "That's how he does business. He goes from one thing to another, to another, to another."
Adding to the situation, the renovations to the facade of the six-story building were halted due to a lack of funding. According to House, the work was stopped because renovations to the smaller building needed to be completed first. However, Dale Oglesby, who was contracted to complete the work on the facade, said he pulled off the job because House could not afford to pay.
"I guess Mr. House ran out of money or he didn't have the funding to do the job," Oglesby said. "We started the job with the presumption that he had the funding in place to do it, then we came to find out that he really didn't."
He later added, "When we saw that this was outside his financial capability, we went ahead and pulled off the job."
Oglesby said he was not upset that payment was not made outside of a small deposit to get the project started. He added his crew continued to work until the area was safe for pedestrians before leaving the job. He said House indicated that he wanted work to continue, but House has not made any contact with Oglesby.
"He acted like he was going to come down and get that finished up, at least on the marble, and possibly get a roof on it but then I've not seen him. He didn't show up," Oglesby said. "We haven't been paid for all the work we did ... That's not a big issue with us ... I'm really interested in seeing the building get saved."
According to Bourbon County Treasurer Susan Quick, back taxes on the Western Insurance buildings, including penalties since 2006, total $58,750.29. She said that the buildings will be placed on the next tax sale in January 2012.
When asked about paying the back taxes, House said, "When I went in to take care of that, Susan Quick ... had to go to Kansas City, the day I went over there ... I have not been able to get back with her, but we intend to pay those, too."
Quick said House did visit her office to set up a payment plan, however, he has never made a payment. She added he stopped her office to let her know he would return with a payment and never came back.
Handly told The Tribune he decided to come forward about his experience working with House because he wanted the truth to come out.
"I'm not out to seek any kind of vengeance or revenge or get anything from Paul House because there's nothing there. He is going to have to stand judgment in front of God Almighty. But I do want to stop him from hurting more people and promising more people a bunch of false promises that's never going to happen.
"Me and my family and tons of other families and even the city of Fort Scott and surrounding areas were hanging on his promises ... He needs to be accountable for the things that he's done wrong. I want people to see the truth and move away from the situation and put it behind them and quit hinging on something that's not there."
Harvest Ministries International Organization Inc. is one of the few businesses House filed with the Missouri Secretary of State's Office that has not been dissolved. House has registered eight businesses, according to the Missouri Secretary of State's Office. Six of them were dissolved by the Missouri Secretary of State's Office because annual reports were not filed. House said he could not comment on his prior business endeavors because of the indictment.
The facility House planned to build in Fort Scott, which would also have included a television studio, would have brought 75-100 jobs to the area.
House stated in a previous interview that the facility was expected to be operational by June 2010.
Harvest Ministries International Organization Inc. is a faith-based organization founded by House in 1986 and branched out to serve in many different aspects throughout the world. Handly said in an e-mail that a lot of the things stated by House "like members in many countries and folks working in the ministry were actually members and people associated with New Millennium Ministries Inc. NMM is a ministry that I founded in 2004 and am the executive general overseer of currently.
"(The) HMIO (Harvest Ministries International Organization) general board consists of House, his wife, his daughter and a man in Michigan that has no idea about what is going on," Handly said in the e-mail.
House said Harvest Ministries chose Fort Scott as a headquarters due to its central location and because it was cheaper to buy an existing edifice than build their own.