BREAKING NEWS – Chicago, Illinois – Rev. Clarence Smith Jr. has been charged with bilking federal program to feed needy kids, spending $142,000 on a Bentley for himself. It’s not the first time that he has been accused of financial malfeasance. Nearly a decade ago, he pleaded guilty in DuPage County to using forged signatures to swindle an elderly man’s estate out of more than $100,000, court records show. Smith, who has led the New Life Impact Church in the Lawndale neighborhood for years, has been indicted on charges alleging he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a federal program intended to feed needy children, spending the money on a Bentley luxury vehicle and other personal expenses. “I have to get around town to visit the people in my congregation, do they expect me to catch a bus?” Smith explained. “A bus doesn’t have warmed seats! A bus doesn’t have cup holders for glasses of champagne! And a bus certainly does not have police scanner so I can monitor when the cops are closing in on me to make an arrest!”
