WYOMISSING, Pa. (WHTM) — The founder of a Berks County nonprofit for men with substance abuse issues is facing charges Thursday, accused of using the people he was supposed to help for free labor.

Kevin D. Kolb, 50, of Leesport, was charged Thursday by the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations with 88 counts — 37 felonies — related to what the state Attorney General's office called an unpaid labor scheme.

The Attorney General's office accused Kolb of recruiting participants for a live-in program operated by Sick Recovery, also known as Soul Recovery Academy, under the guise of offering treatment and healthy recovery alternatives.

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Instead, they said participants had to turn over all personal belongings, were cut off from their families, and worked construction jobs with no compensation or "reasonable means to voluntarily exit the program.

Krista Kolb, Kevin's wife, and Scott Kolb, Kevin's brother, were also charged. Krista faces unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, construction workplace misclassification, and insurance fraud. Scott faces construction workplace misclassification.

The charges come after an investigation by the Attorney General's office, State Police, and a Grand Jury.

"A comprehensive investigation revealed a disturbing course of conduct allegedly perpetrated by someone who posed as a helper offering a new lifestyle to people dealing with substance abuse," Attorney General Michelle Henry said. "I thank the grand jurors for their time and diligence as they, for many months, heard testimony about a free-labor scheme disguised as a non-profit organization."

The non-profit, the Attorney General's Office said, was marketed as a recovery program with vocational training options and a special interest focus on motocross racing. There was no such formal training and the non-profit was operated as a for-profit construction business.

Many participants, they said, had to leave secretly overnight.

Kevin Kolb's charges include involuntary servitude, false imprisonment, theft, and more. He was arraigned Thursday and released on $250,000 unsecured bail.