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• Angel Food Ministries was raided by the FBI and the IRS on February 11 in the wake of revelations that it paid more than $2 million and loaned more than $1 million to founders Joe and Linda Wingo and their family over a two-year period. Watchdogs said the financial moves were highly unusual but not illegal on their face. The Georgia nonprofit, which sells discounted groceries to more than 600,000 people per month via churches in 35 states, said the amounts were compensation for debts the family incurred when launching the ministry in 1994.
• Dallas Theological Seminary on January 29 sued Rodney Bryant, its former chief financial officer, in an attempt to recover more than $165,000 embezzled by writing forged checks to two firms he controlled. Bryant, who worked at Dallas from 2000 to October 2008, denied wrongdoing.
• The NCAA penalized Abilene Christian University in February and vacated 10 football victories from its 2007 season after the Texas college self-reported numerous ethics infractions in football and track since 2005. Other Texas colleges said such infractions, which included gifts given to athletes at a church Christmas party, are common mistakes because of the complexity of ncaa rules regarding gifts. The college said it was considering an appeal.
• The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association announced layoffs of 10 percent of its workforce, or 55 employees, in February in an effort to streamline its evangelism efforts and expand them worldwide. Most of the cuts will come in non-evangelism related areas such as grounds keeping and food service.

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