North Shore Pastor Otho Schilling Sentenced

U. S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that Otho Schilling (59) of Mt. Hermon, Louisiana was

sentenced yesterday (February 12, 2019) by U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $202,632.00 for Theft of Government Funds.

According to court records, Schilling, while he was the pastor of a church in Bush, Louisiana,  beginning in 2005 up until 2016, required the church to pay his personal expenses, such as his health and car insurance premiums, car payments, and personal land note in lieu of the church paying him a salary directly. During this period, Schilling was receiving Retirement, Survivors and Disability Insurance   from the Social Security Administration in the amount of $1,728 a month.  Schilling  concealed both his earnings and employment from the Social Security Administration. Accordingly, Schilling fraudulently received over $200,000 in RSDI benefits he was not entitled to due to his employment with the church.