HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — When the Noah's Ark Children's Care Home opened its doors in the early 1990s, it did so as a residential group home with the mission of providing "a nurturing environment" for "state-confiscated children," according to IRS filings.
A Channel 2 Action News investigation found evidence that the group home closed in 2010 but continued to solicit donations from the public, accepting at least $658,000 in contributions from donors in the years that followed.
"There's no Children's Care Home, like no foster kids … period," said Christy Cunningham, who worked as the Noah's Ark marketing director.
The Noah's Ark name is best known around metro Atlanta for its animal sanctuary, which rescues and rehabilitates exotic animals.
But tucked away on the same Henry County property is a 6,000-square-foot house that was once the Children's Care Home.
The two charities share one address, one website and money, according to the whistleblowers.
"You get into a really sticky situation when you start taking money meant for one non-profit and putting it into another," said Jo Crane, who worked as the charity's assistant controller.
All three women had access to the Noah's Ark records and say they were fired when they began to question discrepancies in the finances and personal spending by the Noah's Ark founding family.
"There's no way that they can account for everything they spent," said Crane. "Because it's not spent where it should be."
In 2011, Georgia's Department of Human Services sent a letter to Noah's Ark confirming that the Children's Care Home had closed "in response to financial failure."
The charity's founder, Jama Hedgecoth, did help foster children for years, but admitted in a letter that the last foster child left her home in March 2010.
"I freaked out. I'm like, ‘Holy crap. I'm involved in a major, major scam,’” Cunningham recounted when she began working on the Noah's Ark website.
As recently as last February, that website was still soliciting and accepting donations as the Children's Care Home.
The same month, it changed its business name with the state of Georgia, but continues to use its original 501(c)(3) IRS exemption ID assigned to the children's home.
State records show that nonprofit, now called Noah's Ark Children's Sanctuary, has not been registered as a charity since 2012.
“Absolutely, I think the state of Georgia should be investigating this organization," said Sandra Minuitti, who runs the watchdog website Charity Navigator. "That's a huge ethical breach. It could be a legal issue as well."
Minuitti said she sees a number of red flags in the Noah's Ark financial records, particularly so many Hedgecoth family members on both of the charity's boards.
She also found it unusual that the children's home could have brought in so many contributions without any fundraising expenses.
The charity's own audits show tens of thousands of dollars spent on things like groceries, utilities and even landscaping, since the last foster child left in 2010.
Hedgecoth also paid herself roughly $100,000 in Children's Care Home salary during that time; she also makes roughly $65,000 each year from the animal sanctuary.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer initially scheduled an interview with Hedgecoth, but her general manager Raymond Jordan, who had arranged the interview, tried to cancel it because of weather.
When told the questions were regarding financial irregularities at the children’s home, and that access to the animal sanctuary grounds was not necessary, he left a voicemail message claiming that Hedgecoth was suddenly getting on a plane to Haiti and would be unavailable for two weeks.
Two days later, Fleischer spotted Hedgecoth and Jordan, at a gas station near Noah's Ark.
“You can't tell me what happened to more than half a million dollars in the last five years?” Fleischer asked.
"Nothing has happened to over half a million dollars, except it was spent on children," Hedgecoth replied, dismissing the allegations as trumped-up claims by disgruntled former employees.
Hedgecoth admitted that five of the six kids featured on her website as "children of the Ark," are her own adopted children.
Fleischer asked, “Besides your adopted children, who are the children living in that home?”
"There's children we have rescued from another country that are medically fragile," replied Hedgecoth.
“Online, you say the money you're raising is going to abused and neglected children," Fleischer asked.
"Absolutely," replied Hedgecoth. "Have you ever been to Haiti?"
The sixth child featured on the website is Haitian. As of last summer, he was being adopted by Hedgecoth's daughter.
“Putting them out there as foster kids, and people are giving them money, I mean, once you adopt them, they're your kids. It's not up to everybody else to raise your kids," said Phillips-Linger.
Hedgecoth claims that she pays for 100 percent of her adopted children's expenses and lifestyle, but admitted that they all live on the tax-free property. She says it is no longer a children's home, it is her home.
The latest IRS tax return for the children's home charity lists a $950,000 building as an asset, along with $150,000 worth of equipment.
"I have never misspent one penny, not one penny," said Hedgecoth, "And I can prove it."
She may have to.
Georgia's secretary of state's charities division opened an investigation after Fleischer inquired about the Noah's Ark records. The state plans to investigate both charities, based on the whistleblowers’ claims.
After Hedgecoth's interview, Noah's Ark changed its website to specifically say that it does not take in foster children through the state of Georgia.
WSBTV
