Pastor of Christian Hope Church indicted on charges of organizing a financial crimes enterprise

[Ian David]

Black Collar Crime

8 charged in $1.6 million training school scam
By Angela Rozas and Gary Washburn | TRIBUNE REPORTERS
7:28 AM CST, January 26, 2008

The money was supposed to help disadvantaged people get back on track, training them to be carpenters worthy of a union card.

But instead, prosecutors said Friday, three Cook County officials and five others stole $1.6 million in loans and federal money intended for training. As a result, few people ever got the help they needed, authorities alleged.

<snip>

Charles Koen, managing director of United Front and copastor of Christian Hope Church, was indicted on charges of organizing a financial crimes enterprise, forgery and other charges in connection with the theft of the training funds. In separate charges brought last year, Koen is accused of stealing more than $500,000 from the United Way of Harvey.

Koen was convicted in 1991 of arson and fraud for setting fire to the United Front headquarters in Cairo in southern Illinois to cover up his theft of government funds.

More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-countytheft26jan26,0,5896129.story

[ursi]

1. And yet another raging success story for Bush and his faith-based initiatives with federal dollars!

[struggle4progress]

2. This is interesting: the same Charles Koen was a target of FBI dirty tricks under Nixon's COINTELPRO

http://www.mohistory.org.nyud.net:8090/content/KatherineDunham/images/collections/N33831web600.jpg

Katherine Dunham and Eugene Redmond with Rev. Charles Koen and other members of the Black Egyptians, 1968–1969. The Black Egyptians recognized the need for steering the youth of East St. Louis into socially responsible activities but were viewed as revolutionary by the media and white society. They supported the arts and civil rights programs and provided recreational outlets for young people. Missouri Historical Society Photographs and Prints Collection.

http://www.mohistory.org/content/KatherineDunham/popups/black_egyptians.htm

Between Civil Rights and Black Power in the Gateway City: the Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes , 1964-75
Journal of Social History, Spring, 2004 by Clarence Lang ...

The Zulu 1200s, formed in November 1967, was an arm of the Mid-City Community Congress, and though it functioned autonomously, the group operated out of the MCC's Delmar Boulevard headquarters. Many of its members had been involved in the Wall of Respect project. A second group, the Black Liberators, formed in early 1968 with close ties to the Zulus. Liberators founder Charles Koen, a dynamic young organizer from southern Illinois, patterned the organization after the Black Panthers. Like them, the Liberators wore black berets and leather jackets, and ran a "Feed the Children" program. At the invitation of Rev. Matheus, the Liberators frequently used St. Stephen's Episcopal Church as a base of operations. They also published a newspaper, The Black Liberator, printed in East St. Louis. Privately, many ACTION members were critical of the Liberators, whose gun-toting exploits brought them to the verge of armed confrontation with St. Louis police. But as with other organizations in the Black United Front, the basis for the ACTION-Liberators collaboration lay in their overlapping constituency among disaffected and energized black youth, and their common antiwar work with black and white students at the city's universities and community colleges ...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_3_37/ai_n6137076/pg_16

COINTELPRO ...
NEUTRALIZING INDIVIDUAL LEADERS ...
Charles Koen ...

The following counter-intelligence activity is being proposed by the St. Louis Division to be directed against <Reverend Charles Koen>. He is <two lines deleted> The activity attempts to alienate him from his wife and cause suspicion among the BLACK LIBERATORS that they have a dangerous troublemaker in their midst. SAC, St. Louis to Director, Feb. 14, 1969

St. Louis is authorized to send anonymous letter set out in relet and Springfield is authorized to send the second anonymous letter proposed in relet. Use commercially purchased stationary and take the other precautions set out to insure this cannot be traced to this Bureau. Director to SAC, St. Louis, Feb. 28, 1969

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/blacknationalist.htm#koen

War in Little Egypt
Friday, Sep. 26, 1969

... White Cairoites responded with cross burnings and shotgun blasts when blacks attempted to integrate local schools in 1952, clubbings when they sought admittance to a community roller rink ten years later, and firebombings when they demanded appointment of a black police official in 1967 ...

Rev. Gerald Montroy, a white Catholic priest, arrived in town from East St. Louis and took up his duties in the heart of a black neighborhood. He drew together the local N.A.A.C.P., a cooperative association and a couple of street gangs, and with the Rev. Charles Koen, a local black minister, formed the United Front.

The new coalition charged intimidation of the black community by the "White Hats," a 600-member vigilante outfit formed and deputized during the 1967 disturbances. It also presented city officials with a list of seven demands, including appointment of a black police chief and assistant fire chief and a near equal black-white ratio in all city jobs. The demands and a boycott used to dramatize them touched off a rash of snipings, which ended only after Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie sent in National Guardsmen to keep the peace.

The peace was short-lived. A new wave of firebombings swept the town early this summer ...

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844916,00.html

Chronology of Political Events, 1954-1992 ...
1969- ...

April: Black community in racially polarized Cairo, Illinois forms United Front to defend itself from racist attacks and fight for equality. A multi-year boycott of white businesses is conducted; the struggle attracts nationwide attention and COINTELPRO effort to smear United Front leader Rev. Charles Koen. (Triple Jeopardy July-August 1972; COINTELPRO; Guardian, January 12, 1971 & December 20, 1972) ...

http://www.revolutionintheair.com/chron/chron2.html

Koen gets 12 yrs. for arson
From: Chicago Sun-Times | Date: 5/23/1991

BENTON Civil rights activist Charles Koen has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for arson and embezzlement at a hearing marked by a shoving match between court bailiffs and Koen's distraught supporters ...

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-4055574.html

... The defense contended that the blaze could have been ignited by a firebomb thrown by the Ku Klux Klan ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koen

... Koen, the managing director of United Front, was convicted in 1991 of embezzlement, mail fraud, theft and arson in St. Louis. He ran a similar scheme there, defrauding a federal job training partnership program. The arson count involved a bank he burned down in an attempt to destroy records ...
Three Cook Co. employees charged in bilking scheme
Published: 1/25/2008 11:16 PM | Updated: 1/26/2008 12:29 AM
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=121499

Walking While Black
A Forum Against Police Violence

Thursday, March 11, <2004> 7:00PM
Christian Hope Church
8849 South Greenwood

Join the victims of Illinois racist criminal justice system who are sick and tired of being sick and are fighting back. Come hear Curtis Wilson, a father whose sons police beat last week in front of him on his own front porch, speak out. As he puts it " It was either pick up a gun or pick up a sign, so I wrote a sign that said honk if you hate police brutality and stood on the busiest corner in my neighbor hood with my 10 kids and picketed. They messed with the wrong dad this time." People couldn't honk hard enough ...

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/37467/index.php

Event: In Commemoration of the Life of May Molina
Description: May Molina (Ortiz) was a leading activist against wrongful
convictions who was tortured & murdered by police in police custody on May
26, 2004, A Forum on Police Torture at Home & Abroad.
Starts: June 24, 2004, 7:00 AM
Where: Christian Hope Church
8849 S. Greenwood ... http://list.afsc.org/pipermail/chicago-chi/2004-June/000000.html