![]() Hankerson declined comment through Steve Sadow, one of his attorneys. Shanga Hankerson in an undated photo hanging on the wall of his Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles restaurant on Peachtree Street. I think he was just in it for the money in the end, said Charles Preston, 63, who worked as a manager at the downtown location for eight years until he quit in April. Funds were so scarce that managers rushed to cash employees bounced paychecks with money from the downtown restaurants safe before Hankersons representatives arrived to retrieve it, they said. On paper, the company was making $8 million in annual sales, but years of chaos at the Atlanta institution had pushed it to the brink of collapse. Read Moreīy the time Hankerson, 38, was booked into Clayton County Jail June 22 on felony theft charges, he had pocketed some $52,000 in state taxes during March and April alone, according to his arrest warrant. ![]() Shanga Hankerson, 38, was booked into Clayton County Jail June 22 on felony theft charges related to unpaid taxes at his. +Witnesses: Gladys Knights son spent on xes, pot as waffle chain sank photo In one case, a general manager one of Hankersons childhood friends put some $12,000 on his credit card to keep the companys employee health insurance coverage from lapsing, former employees said. Managers dug into their own pockets just to keep the restaurants doors open for the day, public records and interviews with a dozen former employees and business associates confirmed. The spending exacted a heavy toll on employees who were shorted on their pay after working under grueling and sometimes unsafe conditions. Hankerson siphoned money from his businesss three locations to finance a voracious marijuana habit and xes parties, witnesses have told investigators. Gladys Knights son, Shanga Hankerson, is at the. The Georgia Department of Revenue raided Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles June 21. +Witnesses: Gladys Knights son spent on xes, pot as waffle chain sank photo BOB ANDRES Now, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned damaging new details about how Hankerson spent the companys money and treated his employees. All three locations have since reopened under state receivership. But his family rallied around him, the story goes, and Shanga Hankerson grew up to found Atlantas Gladys Knights Chicken and Waffles, famous for feeding Southern comfort food to the stars.įans now wait in hour-long lines at its spot on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta for a taste of the Midnight Train: Four jumbo chicken wings on a golden waffle.īut the outward success of a famous family business unraveled when state revenue agents raided and closed the restaurant chain last month, arrested Hankerson on theft counts, and filed civil racketeering charges against him, alleging more than $1 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. He cried every night and ate so much that by age 11 he ballooned to 320 pounds, according to Knights autobiography. The story that soul music legend Gladys Knight told about her namesake restaurant began with a little lost boy, devastated when she divorced his father.
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