An Alabama minister who is the half-brother of the Rev. Al Sharpton was sentenced to five years in federal prison on tax evasion, mail fraud and drug conspiracy charges, prosecutors said Friday.
Kenneth Cherden Glasgow, who also used to go by Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow, pleaded guilty to the crimes in February 2023.
Glasgow, a 58-year-old Dothan minister, founded two nonprofit organizations called The Ordinary Peoples Society and Prodigal Child Project.
He solicited donations from other nonprofits and foundations and told those organizations and the IRS that the donations would be used for charitable purposes, according to Montgomery federal prosecutors, who cited court documents.
But Glasgow instead withdrew more than $407.000 in cash from the accounts of one of the nonprofits in 2018, using the funds for his own use.
He was required to report the funds as income on his tax return once he used the money on personal expenses, prosecutors said, but he did not even file a return that year.
Instead, Glasgow provided erroneous information to his tax preparer, which led the preparer to complete tax forms for the nonprofits that vastly underestimated their income and omitted financial benefits Glasgow received, prosecutors said.
From 2016 to 2019, Glasgow withdrew more than $1.3 million in cash from TOPS and PCP and never accounted for the money on the groups’ IRS forms or on his personal taxes.
He also mailed documents contained false statements to the Social Security Administration so he could continue receiving Social Security disability and related health benefits under Medicare and Medicaid.
The statements “described his physical abilities and daily activities as being very limited, despite reporting that he worked 50 to 60 hours per week for his nonprofits on the nonprofits’ IRS forms,” prosecutors said.
He also claimed to have severe physical limitations that made it difficult for him to drive, even though he admitted leasing a vehicle using the nonprofits’ funds and listing himself as the sole authorized driver.
Glasgow received traffic citations during 27 different traffic stops between February 2015 and August 2020, with all the citations showing Glasgow as the driver, according to prosecutors.
His sentence also included a charge for conspiring with codefendant William Frank Peterson, also of Dothan, to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
Peterson pleaded guilty to his involvement in the drug conspiracy in March.
According to Peterson’s plea agreement, Glasgow agreed to buy cocaine from Peterson in 2018 and 2019.
Peterson is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 2.
