Gladys Knight’s son Shanga Hankerson owns Gladys Knight & Ron Winans’ Chicken & Waffles, a chain of restaurants in the Atlanta area. On June 21, two of the three restaurants and its headquarters were raided by the Georgia Department of Revenue Special Investigations. Chief Jeff Mitchell told WSB-TV: “Shanga’s accused of stealing over $650,000 in both sales and withholding tax,” and “(with) penalties and interest, it’s up to over $1 million owed.”
On June 22, Shanga Hankerson was charged with two counts of theft and was booked at Clayton County jail in Jonesboro, Georgia. The Daily News reports that Hankerson was released on $22,400 bail. Note: Shanga is the son of Knight and her second husband Barry Hankerson, a record producer and former manager of his niece, the late Aaliyah. When Gladys and Barry divorced, a custody battle ensued, which she writes about in her 1997 memoir Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story.
