Sheriff’s office gets windfall from sale of Nuwaubian land

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office was presented a check Tuesday for more than a half-million dollars, proceeds from the sale of property seized from United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors leader Malachi York.

Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said he didn’t know if the $545,985 check would cover the amount his department spent in the six-year investigation of York and resulting litigation.

“We expended a great deal of money over those six years,” Sills said.

Sills said by law the money has to be spent on law enforcement but that he didn’t know what specifically he’d spend it on.

“I’ve learned on assets forfeitures not to count your eggs before they hatch,” Sills said.

The 476-acre Putnam County compound was seized by the federal government in August 2004 and sold in June for more than $1 million. The IRS received about $99,270 from the sale and about $350,000 went to the FBI.

In addition, about $750,000 to $1 million worth of property and cash were seized in Athens from York, but they have not been liquidated yet, said acting U.S. Attorney Pete Peterman.

When that property is sold, it will be divided into similar proportions to the same agencies, said Peterman. He said it’s not clear how much money will be left after debts on the property are paid.

Peterman said seizures are intended to either take property used for crimes or paid for by criminal activity.

York founded the quasi-religious Nuwaubian group in New York in the late 1960s before moving it to rural Putnam County in 1993. He was convicted in federal court in January 2004 of 10 counts of child molestation and racketeering, and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said he used the cult for his sexual pleasure and financial gain, including recruiting members to groom children for sex with him.

Peterman said that agencies involved worked out how the money would be divided and that U.S. Attorney Max Wood approved the divisions.

Sills said of the Nuwaubian case, “I’ve been a police officer for 32 years, and this is the best example I’ve ever seen of federal and local law enforcement working together.”

Sills also thanked the other agencies involved and said he never felt the FBI got enough credit.

Sills did say he was driving a sheriff’s vehicle that’s seven years old and that he would spend money to buy new one. He also said a recent trip to Louisiana to assist authorities there highlighted the need for certain equipment. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office has an annual budget of about $3.1 million.

Sills said that regular budget money and money from other seizures funded the investigation of York.

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