Fake-Charity Money Paid For Jewelry, Vacations, Fancy Clothes

ATLANTA, GA — A metro Atlanta man paid for jewelry and fancy clothes, vacations to Italy and Disney World and home renovations with more than $668,000 he scammed by creating a fake charity in Cobb County.

Kai Brockington, 36, of Dallas, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to charges of mail fraud and willfully filing a false federal income tax return.

Established in Austell in 2010, Brockington's Our Genesis Project supposedly worked to help provide health care for poor people, with a goal of establishing new medical clinics and community-education facilities. "In reality, Our Genesis Project never conducted actual charitable work," the U.S. Attorney's office said in a news release.

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Instead, federal prosecutors say, Brockington used money donated to Our Genesis to buy expensive clothing and jewelry, take vacations to Italy and Disney World and bankroll renovations on his home.

"Legitimate charities rely on the generosity of donors to carry out their humanitarian missions. Because of his audacity to seek personal benefit, Brockington undermined the benevolent intentions of every charity," said David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, which investigated the case. "The FBI hopes his upcoming sentencing will send a message to anyone with similar intentions."

Brockington is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 22.

Although he is only listed as a "volunteer" on the fake charity's paperwork, Brockington was the primary operator of Our Genesis Project, prosecutors say. Beginning in 2013, he got employees at several large companies to tell their employers that they had donated money to the charity.

The companies that were targeted have programs that match their employees' charitable donations with equal sized donations from the company. From 2013-2017, companies donated about $668,000 to Our Genesis Project, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

During that time, Brockington repeatedly filed false tax returns with the IRS. He also filed for personal bankruptcy in 2015, failing to disclose the hundreds of thousands of dollars he'd earned from the charity scam.

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