St. Louis Charity Founder Under Indictment for Fraud

The founder of a St. Louis charity that raised money for spinal-cord injuries is now facing 22 counts of mail fraud, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Lou Sengheiser founded Gateway to a Cure, which raised about $1.9-million for research from ticket sales from four raffles from 2002 to 2006, but gave only $38,325 for that purpose, the newspaper said. Mr. Sengheiser spent $132,640 of the money on personal credit cards and $43,340 in mortgage payments using the charity’s coffers, and wrote $126,000 in checks to himself.

Neither Mr. Sengheiser nor his lawyer responded to the newspaper’s calls for comment on the allegations.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison or fines of up to $250,000, or both.

In January, a judge ordered the charity to pay $3.6-million in restitution to those who had bought raffle tickets.

Catherine Hanaway, the U.S. attorney who pursued the case, said, “People bought these raffle tickets in good faith, thinking they had a chance at great prizes and were donating to a worthy cause. . . . Instead, not only were the raffles a scam, the money was being diverted for other uses.”