Angel Food Ministries Founder Gets Seven Years in Federal Prison

Once upon a time, Joe and Linda Wingo financed a lifestyle with vacations, gambling trips and a downpayment on a private jet, all supposedly paid for with donations and grants intended for feeding the hungry.

In the end, the founders of Angel Food Ministries were sentenced in federal court in Macon on Thursday to federal prison on charges that they used their non-profit to defraud the government and volunteers, according to a story in the Athens Banner Herald. They plead guilty this past February in federal court.

Wesley Joseph "Joe" Wingo got seven years in prison, while his wife Linda got five years probation and their son Andrew Wingo also got seven years. Joe and Andrew Wingo must also forfeit $3.9 million, the story says. 

According to the Banner Herald story, the Wingo family got a $7 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and used it to buy a distribution center in Monroe.

The ministry got volume discounts from food vendors because it was a nonprofit. The distribution system was staffed by volunteers, the story says, giving Angel Food Ministries more revenues than expenditures.