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Robert Serge Gluhareff, former director of the Wellspring Academy in
western Halifax County, was sentenced on Thursday, October 25, 2007 to
a 30 month jail sentence and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution.
Most of the restitution money would be paid to the government to cover
taxes lost after parents listed many of their tuition checks to the
school as tax deductible — something Gluhareff had earlier advised them
to do.
Gluhareff had been charged last year on a total of 53 counts including
tax, wire, mail and bank fraud, money laundering and making false
statements before a federal grand jury. Earlier this spring Gluhareff
pleaded guilty to two charges related to bank fraud and one each to
mail and tax fraud with the other 49 charges dismissed.
In a ninety minute hearing on Thursday in U.S. District Court in
Roanoke, Gluhareff's attorney Kenneth Bell told the court that he "was
guilty only of trying to save the school to help troubled boys."
He also asked that his incarceration be delayed until after the first
of the year, thereby giving Gluhareff time to give his current
patients around the Raleigh, NC area time to get their records
transferred to other counselors.
Following Thursday's hearing, Gluhareff told the Roanoke Times that he
expects to pursue an appeal on the basis of abuse of the grand jury
process, saying that when he spoke to the grand jury that indicted him,
he was not allowed to make a complete statement or to bring witnesses.
But the prosecutor in the case noted that Gluhareff had given up most
of his rights of appeal in the plea agreement reached back in the
spring.
Gluhareff had opened Wellspring Academy back in the late 1980's,
offering counseling in a Christian setting for troubled boys. And while
he told parents of Wellspring students that their children would
receive counseling from licensed professional counselors, no one on his
staff was licensed as a counselor in the state of Virginia.
Gluhareff abruptly closed the school in April 2003 after teachers
complained about not being paid and parents complained about abuse of
the students and inadequate campus facilities.
In August of 2003, he and his wife, Elizabeth filed for personal and
corporate bankruptcy.
One local parent on Thursday told the court that the amount of damage
done to the boys and their families could hardly be recounted, but she
added that she is glad the matter has finally come to closure.