Oklahoma non-profit leaders charged with embezzlement

TULSA, Okla. – An Oklahoma-based non-profit founder and his wife accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charity earmarked to help opioid addicts are free on $100,000 bail each and are due back in Tulsa County District Court on Wednesday.

Jordan Parker, 39, and his wife Vanessa Parker, 29, of Pryor, are charged with six counts of embezzlement for allegedly misusing funds of the Reckless Saints of Nowhere, a charity located in Pryor, Oklahoma.

Some social and published reports show the agency is also a faith-based charity.

Efforts to reach the Parkers or the charity for comment were unsuccessful.

Click here to read more about the Parkers and the Reckless Saints of Nowhere.

An addict for over 15 years, Jordan states on the agency’s website after he got sober, he and his wife, Vanessa founded The Reckless Saints of Nowhere, Inc. in 2016.

The charity has placed more than 6,000 addicts from 22 states in treatment at no cost to them or their families, according to their website. Jordan Parker boasted in an article on “Voices for Non Opioid Choices” that “individuals placed in treatment centers by Reckless Saints of Nowhere have a success rate of over 85%, in part because the centers utilize a model developed by Jordan.”

The couple operated the charity from 2017 through 2023. Its purpose was “consulting, drug counseling, and rehabilitation placement to assist individuals addicted to and recovering from substance abuse,” according to the charity’s website.

The organization’s website refers to Pryor as “the heart of the opioid epidemic” and proceeds from the agency’s apparel sales help pay for addicts’ treatment. An investigation showed t-shirts and apparel were non-profit sales, according to the seven-page criminal complaint filed by the Oklahoma State Attorney General’s office.

In 2021 Barna Foods, Inc. donated funds to help start Reckless Saints of Nowhere Flight School in Salina. The program would be a work release program to assist participants with substance abuse addiction.

Court records show the first donation, $100,000 was gifted to the charity on April 13, 2021. On May 14, 2021, the account had dwindled to $43.43. On June 8, 2021, Barna gifted an additional $500,000 for “funding of the Cornerstone and Freedom Staffing Program.”

The Parkers are accused of using funds from the charity’s operating account to make large purchases from Amazon, Apple, Bluegreen Vacations, and Walmart, purchase two vehicles and pay personal financial loans.

The Parkers primarily operated the charity “with minimal oversight from its board of directors,” authorities say.  The couple had access to and utilized the organization’s financial checks and or debit cards to make purchases unrelated to the charity’s activities, according to the complaint.

Current and former board members told investigators the transactions were not authorized and in some transactions, the current and former board members were unaware of the purchases and would likely not have approved the spending due to their nature.

The investigation into the Parkers was prompted when the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office received several complaints from citizens alleging misappropriated charitable funds.

Questionable Business Transactions?

One item scrutinized was the purchase of a 2019 Honda Pilot for $48,998.  The couple allegedly used $35,000 from the charity’s operating account to buy the automobile and financed the balance using their personal banking account but also dipped into the charity’s operating account to help make the monthly payments, the complaint states.

On July I, 2021, Jordan Parker withdrew $77,000 in the form of a cashier’s check from the charity’s operating account and deposited the funds into the couple’s joint checking account.

This transaction was followed by Jordon Parker withdrawing $67,000 from the couple’s joint account and sending $30,000 to Dr. David Lamb, with Revival Tabernacle, Inc., a church in Kentucky. Charity employees told investigators they were unsure what, if any, services were provided by Lamb. The $30,000 was deposited by the church on August 26, 2021, followed by Jordon Parker transferring $37,000 back into the charity’s operating account. This left $10,000 of charitable funds belonging to the charity unaccounted for, within the Parker’s joint account.

From March 2022 until March 2023, there were approximately $44,435.01 in unaccounted cash withdrawals from the charity’s account. This included checks written to the Parkers by themselves and specifically written for cash. The investigation showed the Parkers had approximately $6,980 in ATM withdrawals and $2,533.00 in overdraft fees.

From Nov. 2021 to Nov. 2022, two Flight School participants worked full-time jobs and their wages were paid directly to the charity. Part of the wages was retained by the charity to fund Flight School operations, and the remainder was deposited in Arvest Bank in Grove in a For Benefit of Client account. The wages were held in the account until the participants completed the Flight School program, at which point the remaining balance from the year’s earned wages was to be provided to the participant. The funds were entrusted to Jordan Parker to administer and manage as a Financial Account Administrator. The funds were appropriated to Jordon Parker’s use and benefit at vendors such as Apple.com. At the time of graduation, the participants were told by Jordan Parker there were not enough funds within the account for them to receive their accumulated wages.

On November 3, 2021, the account balance for the charity was $-78.34 and on November 30, 2021, the charity received a $30,000 loan from Barna. Again by December 21, 2021, the account had been depleted to $477.20. On January 7th, 2022, the charity received a second loan payment, from Barna for $15,000. Those funds were depleted by February 2, 2022, with a balance of $-54.44, the complaint states.

Jordan Parker represented to Barna that approximately $160,000 of the donated funds were utilized to purchase a property in Salina which did not occur. Instead, the Salina property was contracted as a lease-to-own, with the charity making monthly payments to the mortgage holder. He further informed Barna that funds were also to be utilized for vehicles, office space, housing, and to balance staffing needs of the charity, the complaint states.

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