Charges in Connection with Diversion of Funds from Homeless Shelter
Hervel West, 65, was arrested last week and charged with two counts of mortgage fraud, two counts of false statements in mortgage transactions and two counts of unlicensed mortgage brokering.
He is the alleged accomplice of Addie Stewart, 54, who founded Rainbow Beginning Ministries, a homeless charity in Miami, Florida, in 1995. She was charged with two counts of grand theft arising out of allegations that she used a $54,000 grant for Rainbow Beginning Ministries to enrich herself, funneling the money through a piece of property intended to be used as a homeless shelter. According to the arrest affidavit, Stewart sold the charity a piece of property for $54,000, transferred the title back to herself, then took out a $65,000 mortgage on the property, using the cash to pay off personal debts.
