Nonprofit Leader Connie Bobo Charged with Stealing $11 Million

The leader of a nonprofit in St. Charles has been charged with stealing nearly $11 million in pandemic aid — and living a life of luxury on funds meant to feed low-income children.

Connie Bobo, executive director of New Heights Community Resource Center, submitted claims to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services saying the organization had served 3 million meals to low-income, school-age children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri says the meals were never purchased or supplied. Instead, federal prosecutors say, Bobo cashed in — using $4.3 million to purchase a home for herself worth nearly $1 million, other homes for relatives and a $2.2 million commercial real estate investment.

She also gave nearly $1.4 million to her romantic partner, prosecutors say. He then spent $211,907 on a 2017 Mercedes-Benz G550 Wagon.

Bobo's real estate purchases and questions about her nonprofit's meal program were first exposed by Jacob Barker of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bobo told Barker last November that she started her nonprofit in 2011 and operated 32 food distribution sites during the pandemic. She admitted to using nonprofit funds to buy her $975,000 home but told him she used it for board meetings.

“Nobody’s money went to waste,” she told Barker. “We purchased the food, we served the people and those numbers are not doctored. Those are real numbers.”

Barker reported that state officials were skeptical and had flagged the claims — and also kicked Bobo's nonprofit out of the food reimbursement programs.

Now Bobo faces three felony counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of obstruction of an official proceeding. She was indicted by a grand jury yesterday.

“This indictment shows that we will aggressively pursue those who defraud a program intended to feed needy children, and those who exploited loopholes created by a global pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said in a press release. “We will seize the houses and luxury vehicles that they buy with those funds and we will seek punishment that is appropriate for the scale of the crime, which by law includes repayment of the funds.

"Anyone with information about COVID-19 related fraud should contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud at 866-720-5721.” In the indictment, prosecutors are already seeking forfeiture of Bobo's real estate and the SUV — suggesting that for this local nonprofit executive, the gravy train is over.

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