Pastor Pleads Guilty to Selling Food for Poor

[Judi Lynn]

Pastor Pleads Guilty to Selling Food for Poor
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
March, 31 2006

A church pastor pleaded guilty Thursday to selling food donated for the poor at a swap meet and pocketing the money.

Jose Alanis Cano, 45, pastor of Iglesia Apostolica Fuente de Vida, was sentenced to complete 40 days of community service and pay $5,000 to the San Diego Food Bank.

Cano admitted that during 2003 and 2004 he used church funds to buy the donated food from the food bank and then resold it for a profit at a Spring Valley swap meet.
(snip/)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sbriefs31.2mar31,1,5823531.story?coll=la-headlines-california

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Pastor who resold food from Food Bank pleads guilty

4:56 p.m. March 30, 2006

SAN DIEGO – A charity operator who bought food from the San Diego Food Bank, then resold it at the Spring Valley Swap Meet, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of grand theft, forgery and filing a false tax return.
Jose Alanis Cano, 45, pastor of the Iglesia Apostolica Fuente De Vida, was immediately sentenced to three years misdemeanor probation, 40 days of public work service and ordered to repay $5,000 to the Food Bank.

Deputy City Attorney Cindy Davis said a judge stayed 360 days of jail time for Cano as long as he doesn't violate any terms and conditions of probation.

The defendant is also banned from obtaining food from the Food Bank or any food charity, may not hold a seller's permit in the name of any charity, and must submit to searches and audits of any food he sells, the prosecutor said.

From 2003 to 2004, Cano, through his church, paid 18 cents a pound for hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and non-food items from the Food Bank under the false pretense that he was giving all the items away to the poor, Davis said.
(snip/...)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060330-1656-foodbank.html

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Man accused of stealing items from food bank pleads not guilty

Products allegedly sold at swap meet

By Dana Littlefield
STAFF WRITER

October 6, 2005

~snip~
Alanis is one of two men identified in a report this year in The San Diego Union-Tribune that examined widespread mismanagement and theft at the food bank, the county's largest hunger-relief charity. Prosecutors from the San Diego City Attorney's Office say he sold items he collected from the food bank at a swap meet.
(snip)

Alanis and Buchler owned or had family members who owned stores that sold the same types of products they withdrew from the food bank, authorities said.

Alanis, who is charged with two counts of grand theft and one count of forgery, ran the Apostolica Fuente de Vida ministry and rehabilitation center and rented space at a swap meet in Spring Valley. His daughter owned a market just east of downtown San Diego.
(snip)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051006/news_1m6alanis.html

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One of _Bush's goverment funding hand-outs to religious charity recipients, no doubt.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. this makes my radar go off

I don't know why. I'll have to look this guy up tomorrow, too late tonight to fall into a rabbit hole...

[saigon68]

2. Some here will say, its better than Counseling the choir boys in the

Religion can be and sometimes is

THE LAST REFUGE OF THE SCOUNDREL

[formercia]

4. That and Patriotism

Fearless Leader is a good example.

[0007]

13. Did I notice a sexual innuendo in your tone?

If so, I'd say there's something to what you're saying.

[dipsydoodle]

3. People who do such things deserve

a smack in the face - with a television.

[salin]

6. hundreds of thousands pounds of food,

of DONATED food, taken out of the pipeline of food pantries - in order to enrich oneself - and using church money to do so. The fine sounds like a joke. $5,000. How many families could have faced a little less hunger had that food gone where intended? UGH.

[RC]

5. Another good Christian that has never heard of Christ.

Those who follow do not believe. Those who believe do not follow.
Now that I think about it, Christ wasn't a Christian either.

[Strong Atheist]

7. I gotta admit, this type of greed happens everywhere, not just in

church...

[UpInArms]

8. that is so disgusting and despicable, I just don't have words.

The reverse Robin Hood theory is alive and well in *Co's Murka!

This is prolly just part of the "War on Christianity". :sarcasm:

[DanCa]

9. Judas also sold out Christ for thirty pieces of silver. (nt)

[Cobalt Violet]

10. He should have to do more than 40 days community service.

How about instead of 360 jail, 360 days community service.

[NaturalHigh]

11. What a bastard.

His sentence is a joke. He should be cleaning homeless shelters and dishing out food at soup lines for a few years after he does some time in prison.

[genieroze]

12. Whadda dirtbag.

[Bozita]

14. This'll help those poor folks lift themselves up by their own bootstraps

THIS is compassionate conservatism!

[JohnnyJ]

15. Prosecute his ass

Let him burn.

[earth mom]

16. This guy is a PASTOR?!

:wtf:

And * wants to give Churches a ton of taxpayer money to supposedly "help" people? :mad:

[Ilsa]

17. In addition to jail time, he should be required to volunteer at the

local Loaves and Fishes or Christ's Kitchen or whatever and cook a noon meal for several hundred folks that have fallen on hard times. Some service to those he stole from could be a good thing. And revoke his minister's license. What a scumbag. A very deliberate and contemplated theft.