Arkansas college's finances evidence at kickback trial:
"The government did not request a copy of the college's long-range strategic plan to put into evidence, both Benca and defense attorney Shelly Koehler of Fayetteville brought out in cross-examination of Novak. Koehler is an attorney for Shelton. Yet the long-term plan is what the college was fundraising for, Novak testified under Benca and Koehler's cross-examination.
Ecclesia executives, including him, expected Shelton's efforts to take at least two years to begin to bear fruit, Novak testified. Little over a year passed between Shelton's first contract and the appearance of federal investigators at Paris' office, case records show.
News of the investigation, with federal agents first interviewing Paris in late 2014, also cut off enrollment growth, Novak testified. The college had as many as 130 students on campus before the investigation and has about 100 now, he said. Properties bought by the improvement fund grants were for additional student housing, but the need eased because enrollment went down, he said.
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| A staff recruiter told the blogger that the costs were still $30,000 for a student to attend Ecclesia, with Third World dorms, no sports facilities, a tiny library, and this strange combo-building as its main location. They already had plenty of land, but spent all the money on kickbacks and 50 more acres for a shrinking enrollment. |
Woods directed a $200,000 grant to Ecclesia in September 2013, grant records show. Neal, of Springdale, supported a $50,000 grant to the college and Woods another $150,000 in December 2014, also according to grant records. The amount of money Woods is accused of receiving as a kickback isn't specified in the indictment. It claims much of that money was paid in cash, except for one transaction made to Woods by wire transfer for $40,000.
In one transaction, Paris authorized $50,000 to Shelton's firm on Sept. 27, 2013 -- the same day Paris signed an agreement for the college to accept a $200,000 state General Improvement Fund grant, the indictment says. Shelton used the $50,000 that day to open an account for his business, which had been incorporated the day before, the document reads.
Less than a week later, on or about Oct. 1, 2013, Shelton transferred $40,000 by wire from that business account into the personal bank account of Woods, according to prosecutors. Defense attorneys have said the money transfers to and from Woods were loans and money to pay back loans."
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