May.28, 2010

An Allentown charity dragged into the federal criminal probe of attorney John P. Karoly Jr. is receiving $200,000 of Karoly's money.

John Annoni, the executive director of Camp Compass, a nonprofit that helps kids in Allentown, learned today his organization will receive roughly $10,000 annually for the next 20 years.

"I had no idea," Annoni said.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel specifically ordered the money be given to Camp Compass as part of Karoly's 6 1/2 year prison sentence on charges of money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion.

Along with repayment of $1.57 million in back taxes, Stengel ordered Karoly to pay $417,000 in restitution. That's what remained of $500,000 Karoly had given to the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation in 2004, but later steered to an Allentown church and then to his own private foundation.

Karoly had used the money for business and personal expenses. He wrote several checks totaling more than $20,000 to a contractor with "Camp Compass" written on the memo line.

But Annoni testified at Karoly's trial that Camp Compass never received any money from Karoly.

Now it is.