N.Y. Investigates Minister Who Raised Millions for 9/11 Victims

New York State officials are looking into the finances of a Manhattan minister following an investigation by the Associated Press of the clergyman’s fundraising for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and other crises.

The Rev. Carl Keyes, head of the charities Urban Life Ministries and Aid for the World, established himself in humanitarian circles by collecting $2.5-million following the destruction of the World Trade Center and has raised at least $2.3-million more to aid the poor and victims of natural disasters.

The Associated Press, citing financial and internal documents and interviews with former Keyes employees, alleges that the minister poured some of that money into his church, used some of it to pay off personal debts, and when the church was sold for $31-million, he used some of the proceeds to buy a $950,000 house.

The state attorney general’s office is investigating how Mr. Keyes’s church, Glad Tidings Tabernacle, has used it assets. The wire service says the inquiry was triggered by reporting on the clergyman’s finances and humanitarian work.

A lawyer for Mr. Keyes said all transactions involving his church and charities were conducted properly. “The truth is actually quite boring since no one did anything wrong,” the attorney, Jennifer Polovetsky, told the AP in an e-mail last month.