ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A St. Louis non-profit executive is accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $2 million in funds intended to feed low-income Missouri children, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cymone McClellan, 31, of St. Louis, was indicted in U.S. District Court in St. Louis Wednesday on four felony counts of wire fraud.
The wire fraud charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine.
According to the indictment, McClellan owned and ran a non-profit organization called Sister of Lavender Rose (S.O.L.R.).
From about January 2019 to June 2022, McClellan and her nonprofit submitted false and fraudulent meal reimbursement claims to Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
S.O.L.R. submitted reimbursement claims to the Food and Nutrition Programs for Children claiming that she served 860,876 meals to children but in reality, they only bought enough food and milk to serve fewer than one-quarter of those meals.
McClellan attempted to cover up her crime by providing bogus sign-in sheets to DHSS falsely claiming to have taken the attendance of meal recipients at certain food distribution locations.
S.O.L.R. submitted management plans to DHSS falsely asserting that state meal reimbursement dollars were spent only in connection with the provision of meals to low-income children, and that the nonprofit did not use meal money to make purchases over $5,000.
The indictment says McClellan used $60,000 of the money on a down payment on a house in Collinsville, Illinois and also bought five vehicles and a house in Florissant, Missouri.
The indictment also revealed one of the addresses where McClellan informed the state she was purportedly preparing food for low-income children belonged to an adults-only nightclub called Elmo’s Love Lounge.
The indictment seeks the forfeiture of the real estate, as well as the five vehicles she bought which are a 2021 Chevrolet Traverse, a 2012 Chevrolet Express G3500 van, a 2020 Mercedez-Benz Metris van, a 2012 Ford E350 box truck and a 2018 Lexus RX SUV.