Quote of note:
Actually, the story bordered on unbelievable, in which a 350-pound-plus confidence man allegedly bribed guards to repeatedly slip out of prison overnight to operate a fraud operation, eat Church's Fried Chicken and meet his wife. By dawn he was back in his prison bed.
..."That man knows the Bible," she said. "He was a magnificent speaker and teacher. If he was straight, he could build a ministry."
Phony preacher ran fraud empire from jail
By BILL TORPY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/31/06
Monique Henderson found her boss exciting and mysterious.
Dr. W. Sherrod Milton, a silver-tongued preacher who had recently opened a group of financial businesses in a Peachtree Street office suite, always called from exotic places, talking up some big gospel concert or business deal. But there was something odd — although she spoke with Milton 10 to 20 times a day, she had never seen him.
A month into the job, in May 2004, another employee let Henderson in on a secret: Their boss was a convict. She checked the Internet and discovered "Dr. W. Sherrod Milton" was Wayne Milton, convicted mortgage fraud artist, a man who wasn't going to let a prison stint stop him from his career of separating people from their money.
During his 17 months in the minimum-security federal prison camp in Atlanta, Milton sneaked out at least 50 times to conspire on a new wave of mortgage fraud that ultimately approached $20 million, according to court documents.
Henderson said she went to Atlanta police, the Fulton County District Attorney's office, the IRS, the FBI, the Georgia Department of Labor, the Bureau of Prisons. Even Channel 11.
"Nobody believed me," she recounted this week. "It's such an amazing story."
Actually, the story bordered on unbelievable, in which a 350-pound-plus confidence man allegedly bribed guards to repeatedly slip out of prison overnight to operate a fraud operation, eat Church's Fried Chicken and meet his wife. By dawn he was back in his prison bed.
Last week, Milton, 32, of Stone Mountain was sentenced to 20 years on charges of escape from federal prison, conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, grant fraud and aggravated assault on a deputy U.S. Marshal.
The latter offense came in 2005 when Milton tried to run over the lawman who was attempting to arrest him in South Georgia. Milton was shot three times but still led authorities on a car chase at speeds over 100 mph. More on that later.
