Gluhareff faces more fraud charges
By JONNELLE DAVIS
Register & Bee staff writer
September 30, 2006
DANVILLE - An additional 17 federal indictments were handed down Thursday against the founder and former CEO of the Wellspring Academy related to his handling of school and personal funds.
Robert Serge Gluhareff now faces 21 counts of bank fraud, one count of money laundering, 25 counts of tax fraud, four counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud, bringing the total number of charges to 53. On July 25, Gluhareff was indicted on 36 charges.
As with the first set of indictments, Gluhareff is accused of scheming and mishandling school and personal funds in order to obtain money. Authorities say Gluhareff routinely deposited parents? tuition checks before the funds became available.
Between April 2002 and April 2003, Gluhareff knowingly deposited about $476,000 in worthless tuition checks into the school?s BB&T account and drew money from the ?fraudulently inflated? balances created by the deposits, according to the indictment.
The indictments also allege that Gluhareff assisted in misrepresenting tuition payments as tax-deductible ?scholarship donations,? encouraged parents to solicit corporate matching gift donations for what were actually their children?s tuition payments, and falsely promoted the school as having licensed counselors.
Gluhareff founded Wellspring Academy, which was located near South Boston, as a Christian-based residential school for boys who had academic, behavioral and other problems. He cited financial problems when he abruptly closed the school in April 2003. Teachers complained about not getting paid, and parents and students complained of abuse and inadequate campus facilities.
In August 2003, Gluhareff and his wife, Elizabeth, filed personal and corporate bankruptcy.
