strip clubMiracle Hands is a non-profit organization led by Cornell Jones (of American Gangster fame) that aims to help the downtrodden better themselves through job training, HIV prevention services, and even nutrition and hygiene counseling. They also provide emergency housing and encouragement for young fathers not to abandon their families.

Over the past few years, Miracle Hands has received nearly $330,000 in federal grant money for the specific purpose of renovating a warehouse into a jobs-training facility. The funds came from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in order to convert the building into one that could be used to teach job skills to people with HIV or AIDS. 

Instead, the building is now a strip club.

One could argue that pole dancing is a challenging pastime requiring great physical strength and stamina, and that just the right hiney wiggle can potentially double a stripper’s Tuesday night tips, but that’s probably not what HUD had in mind when they sanctioned the grant. Besides, the Stadium Club is not a strippers training facility, it’s just a plain ol’ run-of-the-mill Gentlemen’s Skeeze Bucket Club.

DC Attorney General Irvin Nathan filed a false-claims complaint this week against Miracle Hands and Cornell Jones, seeking $1 million in damages for “unjust enrichment and submitting false expenditure reports in violation of the District’s False Claims Act.”

In 2007 Miracle Hands decided to change the location of the training facility, but it continued to submit invoices to the government for the renovations to the strip club. In 2010, Jones sold the property for a tidy $2.7 million. He continues to be a regular presence at the Stadium Club, attending about twice a week.

The renovations at the second location were never completed.


Image via the_toe_stubber/Flickr