National Food Charity’s Head Pleads Guilty to $183,000 Theft

The founder of antihunger nonprofit USA Harvest acknowledged in court Tuesday that he embezzled more than $183,000 from the now-defunct charity and failing to report more than $550,000 in income from donations, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports.

Stan Curtis faces up to 52 years in prison on charges of mail fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering, but prosecutors recommended he be sentenced at the low end of federal guidelines, which would be 24 months. The plea agreement also orders Mr. Curtis to pay restitution of $183,354, which would go to Kentucky Harvest, a separate charity he founded but was not running at the time of the thefts.

The 65-year-old former stockbroker was initially set to plead guilty following his being charged in September 2012, but his lawyer withdrew the plea after disclosing that Mr. Curtis suffers from Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a brain disease that causes confusion and memory loss.

Defense lawyer Scott C. Cox then sought a ruling that Mr. Curtis was not competent to understand the charges but lost in court. Mr. Cox said he did not know Mr. Curtis’s motive for the theft but said his client was not reimbursed for a “tremendous amount of expenses” he incurred leading USA Harvest and that “he did feed a lot of kids.” The charity won national recognition for collecting leftovers from restaurants, hotels, and stores to feed the poor and hungry.