BY: SHERMAN SMITH
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Two former leaders of a Kansas foster care provider have entered plea negotiations to avoid trial for allegedly bilking the organization out of millions of dollars, federal court records show.
A grand jury indicted former Saint Francis Ministries CEO Robert “Father Bobby” Smith and William Whymark, the organization’s former IT director, in November 2022 on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering with damages totaling at least $4.7 million.
A Feb. 25 court filing in the federal case shows “the parties are presently involved in plea negotiations and anticipate resolving this case without a trial.” The filing asks the court to authorize a presentence investigation report, which a court officer prepares when a defendant pleads guilty in order to help the judge determine the appropriate sentence.
The report “would materially facilitate the parties’ ongoing plea negotiations by allowing them to quickly and efficiently identify areas of potential agreement, while simultaneously isolating any disputed loss issues that may truly require litigation,” the joint court filing said.
Under the charges included in the indictment, they could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, plus fines and restitution.
Denny Marlin, spokesman for Saint Francis Ministries, said the organization wouldn’t comment “out of respect for the criminal justice system” and “to ensure we do not compromise the integrity of the legal process.”
“We look forward to its resolution and remain focused on our mission of providing healing and hope to children and families,” Marlin said.
Kansas Reflector first reported on allegations of misconduct by Smith and Whymark shortly after they left Saint Francis Ministries in November 2020. An internal investigation revealed excessive billing for IT services and charges by Smith for lavish personal expenses.
In 2022, Saint Francis sued Smith, Whymark and former general counsel David Shaffer, accusing them of operating a scheme to enrich themselves through fraudulent billing. The lawsuit identified Shaffer and Whymark as brothers.
The former employees denied the claims, and Smith countersued Saint Francis employees for defamation because of reporting by Kansas Reflector.
Saint Francis hired Smith, an Episcopal priest ordained in 2014 by the Diocese of Chicago, as president and CEO in 2014. From 2017 to 2020, according to the state lawsuit, Smith charged $442,276.17 on Saint Francis Ministries credit cards, “a significant portion of which funded lavish meals, entertainment, travel and gifts for him and his family.” Smith also paid a travel agency $57,125.43, “a majority of which had no legitimate business purpose or was grossly excessive,” the lawsuit said.
Shaffer for at least eight months billed Saint Francis both through his Chicago law firm and in his individual capacity, which the lawsuit characterizes as legal malpractice. From 2015 to 2019, Shaffer billed more than $1 million in legal fees to his law firm, and from 2018 to 2020 an additional $500,000 in payments to himself. Smith approved the “grossly excessive” invoices, the lawsuit said, including invoices for legal work unrelated to Saint Francis and $4,000 for moving and storage expenses for office furniture at his Chicago law firm.
Whymark wasn’t qualified to provide IT services, but Smith hired him as chief information officer and signed off on more than $11 million for services provided by Whymark’s IT company. The lawsuit said those services were “grossly deficient and overpriced.”
Whymark’s company outsourced work to build a content management system that wouldn’t function. In the fall of 2019, while Saint Francis was undergoing a financial audit, the system crashed and destroyed financial data. Whymark then wiped the hard drives, according to the lawsuit, and the organization spent an estimated $3.2 million to repair Whymark’s IT work.
At the time, Saint Francis Ministries was the largest foster care provider in Kansas, serving more than 3,000 foster kids.
By January 2020, the IT costs combined with a severely underbid contract to provide foster care services in Nebraska placed Saint Francis in financial peril. The organization survived in part by receiving a $10 million Payment Protection Program loan, which it wasn’t eligible for and never repaid, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, the Kansas Department for Children and Families awarded new foster care contracts and replaced Saint Francis as the provider for the Wichita region. Saint Francis continues to provide foster care services for much of central and western Kansas.