United States Attorneys Office - Western District of North Carolina

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
GRETCHEN C.F. SHAPPERT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2007

CONTACT: SUELLEN PIERCE
704.338.3120
FAX 704.227.0264

JOHN HENRY WALKER SENTENCED TO 63 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON
Senior Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church of Charlotte Taken into Federal Custody CHARLOTTE, NC - United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert for the Western District of North Carolina announced that Dr. John Henry Walker, 48, Senior Pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Charlotte, was sentenced today on nine federal criminal counts which charged false statements in connection with bank loans, tax evasion, and false statements to federal agents. United States District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Dr. Walker to a term of 63 months imprisonment to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release. In addition, Dr. Walker was ordered to pay approximately $274,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service plus any interest and penalties, and a special assessment of $900 (representing $100 per criminal count). Dr. Walker had earlier entered a guilty plea to the charges in November 2006, and was ordered by Judge Whitney at the close of today’s hearing to be taken into custody by United States Marshals.

Shappert is joined in today’s announcement by Charles Hunter, Special Agent in Charge of IRS, Criminal Investigations, and Keith A. Fixel, Inspector in Charge of the Charlotte Division Headquarters of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. In November 2006 Dr. Walker pled guilty as charged to the nine-count federal bill of indictment. According to the allegations made in the indictment, statements made in open court at the November 27, 2006 hearing when Dr. Walker entered his guilty plea, and statements made in open court today at his sentencing hearing, Dr. Walker began his employment with Macedonia Baptist Church in 1992. During the 15 years of his employment as Senior Pastor at Macedonia Baptist Church in Charlotte, Dr. Walker received numerous forms of compensation, including rent-free accommodations in a residence owned by the church, a base salary, a housing allowance, annual bonuses, Christmas bonuses, honorariums, paid vacations, and other payments constituting reimbursements for various costs he incurred. The court’s records reflect that from 1998 through 2003, Dr. Walker received over $900,000 in payments and reimbursements from Macedonia Baptist Church, and that when funds in the church’s general account were insufficient to make the payments to Dr. Walker, transfers were made from or checks were drawn on Macedonia Baptist Church’s building fund account. In addition, Dr. Walker received a number of payments from an account set up for Macedonia Baptist Church’s summer youth program. During the years charged in the indictment (1999-2003), the defendant personally earned nearly $600,000 in taxable income from Macedonia Baptist Church and other sources and Dr. Walker reported taxable income of less than $55,000 of this sum and attempted to evade federal income taxes of more than $400,000 for those years.

Dr. Walker was charged in count one with making a false statement on May 26, 1996, to Capital One Bank in connection with a false credit card application which fraudulently misstated his annual income, and pled guilty, as charged. Count two charged that the defendant, on or about May 11, 2001, made false statements to the Mechanics and Farmers Bank in connection with an application for a residential loan, and Dr. Walker pled guilty, as charged. Count three charged and Dr. Walker pled guilty that he, on or about May 11, 2001, made false statements to the Mechanics and Farmers Bank in connection with a home equity line of credit loan. Counts four through eight all charged tax evasion on the part of the defendant for the calendar years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, respectively, to which the defendant admitted his guilt. Count nine charged that the defendant knowingly and wilfully made materially false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Executive Branch of the U.S.Government on or about December 15, 2004, during an interview conducted by special agents of the Internal Revenue Service. On November 27, 2006, Dr. Walker admitted in open court his guilt regarding making these false statements.

Judge Whitney found at today’s sentencing hearing that Dr. Walker demonstrated a continual pattern of disrespect for the law before the federal charges were filed in April of 2006 and while the case has been pending in U.S. District Court. Dr. Walker stipulated and agreed at the time of the entry of his guilty plea that for the tax years 1999-2003, he willfully signed his personal tax returns even though had reviewed the tax returns for those years and knew that they were materially incorrect. The tax returns did not report his entire taxable income for those years. The admissions were in connection with separate criminal counts (counts four through eight) in the same federal bill of indictment. In addition, the Court found, according to statements made in open court in January 2007, that Dr. Walker had committed new tax-related law violations (violations not contained in the bill of indictment) and gave him three days to pay his outstanding taxes for 2004 and 2005 or be taken into custody. Judge Whitney also found at today’s sentencing hearing that Dr. Walker had a history of wilful non-compliance with the Internal Revenue Code, going back to 1991.

Today’s sentencing hearing for Dr. John Henry Walker represents the final disposition in the case stemming from the government’s investigation which began in 2004. United States Attorney Gretchen Shappert commended the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their thorough and professional investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Brown, Senior Litigation Counsel for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Meyers, also of the Charlotte U.S. Attorney’s Office, handled the prosecution for the government.
JOHN HENRY WALKER
Charlotte, NC