The Mormon church in Canada: Where did more than $1 billion go? - The Fifth Estate

foreign [Music] you may know them from that knock at your door [Music] or these sprawling iconic temples or maybe their nostalgic TV commercials even the Broadway priority The Book of Mormon was a runaway hit with almost 17 million members worldwide two hundred thousand in Canada the Mormon Church isn't the world's biggest religion but it is one of the wealthiest the Mormon church will have you to believe that it's a religion that dabbles in business they are a business dabbling in religion people want to bang on the church and say well you've got all that money in reserve yeah and it's a good idea for other people to follow that example why does God God of Miracles require all this money but has the church built its wealth on the backs of taxpayers in Canada and around the world there's live questions about whether the church has engaged in wide-scale tax avoidance or illegal wide-scale tax evasion we have been mischaracterized since 1830 that's always been the case I don't think it will ever go away do you think that this is a case of fraud of course I do absolutely it's fun I'm Mark Kelly in Salt Lake City Utah home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a church shrouded in secrecy and mired in controversy involving complaints about homophobia and how the church is managing its vast Fortune with connections to Canada this is a story about whistleblowers from Alberta to Australia and stunning Financial Revelations as we investigate the Mormons books this is The Fifth Estate these are members of the Mormon Church lining up in Salt Lake City not to worship but to quit an angry illustration of a church in crisis a crisis that reaches into Canada and into the pockets of Canadian taxpayers Southwest Alberta marked by Rolling ranches and fertile farmland and towering over it all this temple in the town of Cardston settled in 1887. Cardston was the first Outpost in Canada of what was then a new religion the Mormon church what is the significance of this Temple well this was the first temple that was built and dedicated outside of the states so it's the big part of certainly the the church's Canadian history then absolutely yeah like this goes back more than 100 years as a child Nigel Kennett visited this Temple every year with his family devout Mormons he was married here 14 years ago his faith as solid as these Granite walls so this is the closest thing we have to Salt Lake City North yeah yeah exactly but then Nigel learned something about the finances of the church he felt he had to share I'd been weighing on my mind for years sometimes I say one of these days I'm just going to write a letter I'm going to send it to a news Outlet just to clear my own conscience so that I can say I did everything that I could Nigel cleared his conscience with an email to The Fifth Estate my desire to present the story is not driven by malice but by the belief that by making the issue known may drive some change so we met with Nigel speaking out for the first time little did we know where this story would take us do you feel that the church is being honest with you I don't but I've heard it said that lying isn't necessarily the words that you're saying but it's the intent to deceive people and I think that the church has built an Empire by deceiving people [Music] how many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door [Music] remember these tv ads they helped build the Mormon brand faith family and honesty when you ignore accomplishments you rob your children and yourself of some very satisfying moments hey [Music] great come on up let's take a look at it [Music] today the church is a huge International operation with almost 17 million members and some 300 temples in 74 countries as we strive to follow Jesus Christ we reach out to those in need this recent video highlights the church's branding now alleviating Global suffering the real overarching goal is what are we going to do with the relationships that we develop so we can actually make life better for the people that are suffering since 1985 the church says it's given away a total of three and a half billion dollars in humanitarian Aid that money originates from tithing donations from church members unlike most churches tithing is not optional it's a commandment for the Mormon faithful one of the first things a bishop must do to help the needy is ask them to pay their tithing like the Widow if a destitute family is faced with the decision of paying their tithing or eating they should pay their tithing the bishop can help them with their food since he was baptized at the age of eight Nigel has been Faithfully giving tithing money to his church I was broke I took out student loans I was working a couple jobs I was working a night job and then another retail job and then for me to be considered worthy to go to the temple I had to be contributing 10 of my income what was your understanding as you were paying tithing where that money was going I always was taught that there was a strong emphasis on humanitarian Aid with with tithing is that like you pay tithing and then it furthers the Lord's work but that it's also to go towards people who need help newigel's an accountant he was working on the books of a church of a different faith when he saw how much their members gave to charity so he looked into the Mormons books and was stunned by where their donations were going as you identified I'm an accountant and so in Canada there's a Charities directorate and then was able to see the full financial information and I was floored I was like holy cow why don't I see qualified donise for um like the the Red Cross or the food bank I was like what the heck 100 million dollars to BYU BYU is Brigham Young University opened in 1875. it's a private university in Provo Utah owned and operated by the Mormon Church 98 percent of the students enrolled here are Mormons so how much Canadian money has been flowing to BYU we obtained Canadian charity records and found something unusual starting in 2007 the Mormon Church in Canada began moving Mass amounts of money to BYU the biggest year on record was 2016 when almost 110 million dollars was gifted to the university that was nearly 70 percent of all the tithing money collected that year by the Canadian Church American Lars Nielsen graduated from BYU it was at Harvard when his Mormon belief bubble would burst I do believe that my experience at Harvard University I think it liberalized me it opened me up to the possibility that my church My Religion wasn't all that it had said that it was and allowed me to be a more critical thinker Lars was questioning his faith as well as the church's finances that's when he too saw the Canadian cash pipeline to BYU and he has a theory about that why is that money going to BYU yeah well the church wants to grow and create Zion and to to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth where do they want to do that they want to do it in America in the promised land and Canada is attached to the promised land but it's not the promised land but they they do have a significant portion of tithepayers there so they would like to get the money out how do you get the money out of Canada legally legally the church in Canada can't transfer money to its parent Church in the U.S and retain its charitable status but it can move as much money as it wants to an American University like BYU but there is a key condition there is in your tax system a loophole that says if it's used for educational purposes that benefit Canadians outside of Canada then you can use the money that way and they rationalize oh well maybe one percent of BYU have got Canadians they say as long as it's better benefiting anyone who is Canadian at BYU even if it benefits one Canadian student there even if it benefits one student there are more than 85 000 students enrolled at BYU's three campuses in 2018 the last available figures we could find about 1400 were Canadians that's less than two percent of the student body so how much money has the Canadian Church given BYU well more than one billion dollars donated by Mormons all eligible for tax deductions for those donations when you add it all up those deductions cost the Canadian treasury as much as 280 million dollars in an emailed statement to The Fifth Estate the church said it is using a legitimate and well-known tax provision to transfer money to BYU and points out more donations were retained and used in Canada than the U.S we crunched the numbers since 2007 46 percent of Canadian tithing money left the country which raises the question what exactly are Canadian taxpayers supporting when we come back we go to BYU what's it like to be bisexual at BYU oh gosh it's absolutely awful because anyone can report you to the arnica office the thing is that's the reality for queer students everywhere you know and we we all live with that fear [Music] Brigham Young University represents everything the Mormon Church stands for moral pure and squeaky clean [Music] I believe you to be the very best and I'm counting on you to be consumed with conviction the Staples of typical college life are forbidden here no booze no drugs no smoking even coffee is a no-go cherish the Gospel of Jesus Christ and live it the world needs you dubbed the Lord's University our investigation has revealed that since 2007 the Mormon Church in Canada has donated more than a billion dollars to BYU tax deductible charitable donations underwritten by Canadian taxpayers we followed the Canadian money to the campus of Brigham Young University just south of Salt Lake City here we're told students can get a world-class educational experience unless they happen to be gay Brigham Young [Music] this is the space this is the spot I mean after everything you've been through what does it mean here in front of Brigham Young I mean it's difficult because I really wanted BYU to be the place and then uh to come somewhere so Central to your religion and be told this is the place but not for you that's tough yeah their Mormon faith LED Jeannie Williams and Canadian Jacqueline Foster to BYU but once they got here that Faith was severely tested after they both came out on campus I'm bisexual okay I'm not straight I don't struggle with same sex attraction I struggle with people who struggle with my same-sex attraction back in 2020 protests erupted over BYU's Honor Code which forbids homosexual Behavior homosexual Behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings that includes hugging dating even holding hands on campus their mission to send a Beacon of Hope the famous y on the mountain overlooking the BYU campus was lit up with rainbow colors faced with mounting pressure the school lifted the ban everyone starts taking these pictures of themselves kissing their same-sex Partners out right in front of the Statue of Brigham Young right in front of the administration building and I started crying because it was so you know what we've been hoping for this whole time but the victory lasted only weeks the church intervened saying same-sex relationships are not compatible with their faith one of the area authorities sent a letter to the to BYU basically saying no no like you may have removed the language but the church still doesn't support queer people dating or holding hands or kissing and so they can't do that here at BYU and everyone felt very panicked like I just came out as having had a girlfriend for two years it was around then Genie got a call from the manager of her student residence and he's like your sexuality is making your roommates uncomfortable and I'm like what do you mean and he's like they've come in they don't feel safe around you that kind of thing and then before I know I have to leave Genie Canadian Mormons through their tithing are contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to BYU tell them what's it like to be bisexual at BYU oh my goodness it's you're so scared because they allow this atmosphere of homophobia to permeate I have a best friend from back home sometimes I kissed her on the cheek people staring you're like oh what if they take that wrong because anyone can report you to the arnica office all they need is your name and go you did this I I guess my my last question for you is why are you still here I'm still here because despite everything that's happened I believe in be with you I I know that God loves me and I know that the church at its best would love me Jacqueline has graduated BYU and wonders why with all the need in Canada the Mormons keep bankrolling BYU it does raise the question for me you know why is it for the church to move Canadian religious donations out by moving it to a private American School [Music] but what the Mormon church does with its money is much bigger than BYU crack started showing in the church's wall of secrecy and it all started here in Las Vegas Sin City no less and the church would soon realize what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas here on the outskirts of Las Vegas Ryan McKnight walks in the desert of his decisions once a faithful Mormon he quit the church accusing it of Decades of racism and homophobia I've dedicated a lot of my professional career to ensuring that truth and appropriate transparency exists you know out there as a government regulator I worked for many years as a government regulator started his own website Mormon leaks to expose Secrets including what the church does with its tithing money breaking news into the live desk right now new documents have just been released by Mormon Lakes take a look here we broke a story about the church owning 32 billion dollars in U.S stockholdings through these 13 random llc's that they had tried to hide the funds control about 31.9 billion dollars in Investments the LDS church declined to comment for this story The reason why they have tried for so long to keep these portfolios Under Wraps is because they are concerned that it would lower people's willingness to pay tithing what does that say to you about the church yeah I personally would find that problematic you know because that's a dishonesty which led him to start digging into the church's private land Holdings in the U.S his most ambitious investigation into the church to date do you see the Mormon church as as a business the Mormon church will have you to believe that it's a religion that dabbles in business but but the evidence clearly shows that they are a business dabbling in religion 100 percent Ryan was about to get some unexpected help from the other side of the continent Josh bigley is now an ex-mormon living in PEI he feels the church has lost its way in his pursuit of wealth it's been a long time since I've had to quote that scripture but the idea is if you bring your tithing to God that he will open the windows of heaven and you will have everything that you need that Prosperity Gospel is false Jesus never taught that it's not the way that the scripture should be interpreted this is the way that Mormon culture interprets it like Ryan in Las Vegas Josh wanted to know where the church was spending all its money so he scoured Financial records were you surprised at what you found stunned absolutely stunned I couldn't believe how many how many corporate entities in the U.S there were I actually didn't know I wasn't sure where to go next and that's when I realized the best thing for me to do is to reach out to Mormon Lakes so Ryan and Josh teamed up to add up what the church quietly owned we we essentially cracked a code that allowed us to open up the the window to this massive real estate holding when you build out these complex corporate structures you do it for one purpose and one purpose only and that is to hide they built a massive database listing thousands of properties owned by the church information most people didn't know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns over 1.7 million Acres the portfolio is estimated to be worth 15.8 billion dollars this past spring they released the results of their investigation what we uncovered is that in terms of dollar value even if you go on the conservative end of it they are clearly without a doubt the wealthiest single landowner in the United States there's no no question about it nobody comes even close huge amounts of money in both the US and Canada and maybe abroad who knows why what's the reason for it is it a rainy day fund and if so what does that rainy day look like Ryan and Josh spent two years collaborating on their project and through all that time they'd never actually met before until now I gotta give you a hug how are you doing it's good to meet you good to meet you too oh my goodness when you uncovered what you didn't uncover What What In the End did it tell you about truth and transparency that it's hard that people are highly motivated by money I think that's the one thing for me that I observed was when there's money the accumulation of wealth involved truth and transparency often take a back seat anytime an organization's operational budget is primarily made up of tax-free donations from my perspective they have an ethical obligation to be transparent about their finances when we come back our investigation into the Mormon's books takes us to Australia I want it acknowledge that I did not give that money willingly I gave it because I had to and I don't believe that rubbish their peddling I want my money back [Applause] thank you I am honored Beyond description to be here with all of you today as questions around the Mormon's finances grew louder each day in a rare move the church faced the Press the last time a senior leader of our church spoke at the Press Club was in 2000 president Gordon B Hinckley it's good to be back here in D.C the Mormons Came Out Swinging the LDS church has more capability than any other Church in the country to help eliminate poverty what more could the church do in terms of humanitarian efforts here people want to bang on the church and say well you've got all that money in reserve yeah and it's a good idea for other people to follow that example the church said it was saving and spending releasing a report which said in 2021 alone it provided 900 million dollars in Aid to those in need around the world generous donations from our church members as well as friends of the faith allow us to support the initiatives I just described and many many others but with its massive investment fund and Property Holdings the church actually gives away just a small fraction of money collected for the needy here in Australia it's a completely different story according to government tax filings the Mormon Church in Australia donates a staggering 70 percent of its tithing income to charity making it one of the biggest charities in the country so is this a case of unbridled generosity or is it something else foreign to answer that question we teamed up with this Australian journalist and a team from 60 Minutes Australia so the idea then that in Australia it was disproportionately charitable that 70 cents in the dollar was going out as Charity just made no sense even less sense when you see how the giving has increased dramatically well the number of Mormons in Australia has declined as recently as 2014 the amount of donations that went through it was two hundred thousand dollars but we see within five years that's gone from that figure to 73 million dollars a year we can see that figure there so we're seeing an escalation in donations which is 2 000 fold over time it's just it's an incredible amount of extra money from two hundred thousand dollars to 73 million dollars in charitable donations but why that led us to a Mormon Insider with a story of his own to tell [Music] do you consider yourself ex-mormon or post-mormon gee I haven't really thought about the distinction I I never even use those terms to describe myself um I don't know how I describe myself just uh I think I've become a free thinker a free thinker a barrister and a law professor who held senior roles with the Mormon church causes substantial tithe pair um and I happily parted with a lot of money on an annual basis how much money do you think you gave the church oh it'd be in hundreds of thousands but uh may even be more unlike in Canada tithing money isn't tax deductible Mormons here only get a tax break when the church donates their money to charities it's very much smoke and mirrors Neville wonders why else have the church's donations to charity suddenly grown more than 300 times in recent years and that's where I come to the point about well of course with its preponderantly corporate structure what else is it going to do it's going to bring money in like a vacuum cleaner to benefit the shareholders that's what it does what is the benefit to the church for pumping 70 million dollars through through this charitable trust the benefits of the church is that it gives a tax advantage to Australian Mormons if they if that money was just tithing the Australian Mormons would not get a tax deduction therefore they would have to pay a lot more in tithing than they otherwise would who's the loser the loser is the Australian government and the Australian people there's hundreds of millions of dollars of money that should have been taxed that hasn't the Mormon Church's charity is now one of the biggest in Australia and yet for the main charity that that donates 70 to 100 million dollars a year it has no paid stuff not one in Australia in Australia well how can that be well the church says that a handful of volunteers make these decisions you don't run one of the biggest charities in the country with no no paid staff it doesn't make any sense Neville wants to know if the Australian charity is run from Salt Lake City which would violate Australia's tax law so he's part of a complaint to the Charities regulator you know when you join the dots this seems to be a a pattern of behavior that doesn't really favor the church very well in how it looks as a as a church it's walking like a duck it's squawking like a duck but the church is telling me it's an albatross but in the end you you come to the point where you realize that yes it is a duck from what he's seen Ben believes the Australian tax office should investigate there's a lot of questions about whether the church has engaged in wide-scale tax avoidance or a legal wide-scale tax evasion in a statement the Mormon Church insisted it has not violated any tax laws in Australia donations are used for overseas aid projects that satisfy Australia Charities and tax rules I mean I'll be just very straightforward I want my diving money back Sue Trevor and their family spent two decades in the church Nathaniel he's my youngest and he's a professional dancer and he was classically trained and how important was his story into your break with the church yeah that was it was pretty big actually then they came to the crossroads their family or their faith Nathaniel is gay and the church has a very limited acceptance of gay people I've been at priesthood meetings where there were just a few people who all knew that my son was gay and they would say well we have to love them but we don't have to like them I was actually working at the Australian crime commission when I got the call that my son had attempted suicide [Music] sorry after leaving the church they started asking questions about the Mormon's wealth we knew they had plenty of money but we always assumed the money was just being used for good charitable purposes well that's that's the messaging that you receive through the church anyway but with allegations of tax avoidance and billions invested in U.S properties Sue and Trevor have joined ex-mormons in the U.S who want to file a lawsuit to reclaim their tithing money but it wasn't a gift of it was extorted out of us and I want that acknowledged I wanted acknowledged that I did not give that money willingly I gave it because I had to and I don't believe that rubbish their peddling I want my money back here in the Australia Australian Capital the political opposition demanded an immediate investigation by the country's tax office into the Mormons finances well there's a new government in place here now and the man who demanded that immediate investigation is now the country's minister in charge of charities his name is Andrew Lee Mr Minister Mark Kelly from Canadian broadcasting cheers have a seat thank you thank you very much we asked him about the calls by Neville and others for an investigation by the country's tax office while in opposition you you demanded for an immediate investigation by the tax office you're now in power but is that investigation currently underway well as investigations take place at arm's length from government as it should be Lee says he can't confirm if there is an investigation but he did say this oh I think it's important that everyone is playing by the rules and I think that when you've got anyone that appears to be not playing by the rules then that can undermine the Integrity of the tax system and was your concern here that the Mormon the church was not paying its fair share in taxes I think it's important that all Charities are appropriately scrutinized for their tax Behavior charity shouldn't be a way of Sheltering yourself from tax appropriate tax payments nevertheless what kind of church sits on profits from generous tax breaks instead of directing it to people who need it especially in developing countries but what to use your word what is evil about a church saving money for a rainy day because the reindeer rainy day is definitely here so yes I do I do hold what I said I think it is an evil Doctrine in third world countries at least when we come back the biggest Revelation yet and if they do something that's illegal I'm going to call them out on it because that's the right thing to do and they taught me that we have been mischaracterized since 1830 that's always been the case I don't think it will ever go away [Applause] in 2012 the president of the Mormon Church cut the ribbon on this luxury shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City it's built right across the street from the Mormon's Majestic Temple it's a symbol of their prosperity it's a symbol of their prominence it means that something is working but Lars Nielsen a sixth generation Mormon says this mall is more than a symbol of Mormon prosperity it's also a symbol of Deceit ours Nielsen went public after his brother a former investment manager for the LDS church filed a whistleblower complaint to the IRS Lars is now at the center of one of the most explosive Revelations to rock the Mormon faith in decades so in some ways I could say that it's the Mormon Church's fault that I am an IRS whistleblower because um I'm just evangelizing the truth as I see it he's one of two brothers who revealed a tightly held secret within the church an investment fund worth 100 billion dollars built from tithing money if you instead take those Monies allow the tax deduction and then you never perform any of those types of services you're in essence just stealing a little bit of money from everybody I mean you have billions of dollars in apple and in you know fossil fuel burning companies and energy companies all of these vehicles you wouldn't think are what churches would invest in and so that rattled people and then the lack of activity in doing something that that money is designed to be used for nothing religious educational charitable this is lar's first feature-length TV interview after going public in 2019. why do you believe the church was hiding this truth from its members if people knew that the church had a hundred billion dollars and they weren't putting it to any use they would be less inclined to continue donating to the church a lot of members of the Mormon church have been clamoring to get their tithing back people are upset about this they know that the ethics are not um are not Christ's ethics the complaint to the IRS was filed by large Brother David a senior manager who oversaw the fund and its ties to that shopping mall [Music] and then he started to hear that the leaders of the Mormon Church were saying things like not one penny of uh tithing money was being used to build the City Creek Mall and that blatantly wasn't true he had seen the journal ledgers he had been in on these conversations he knew that 1.4 billion dollars had been spent to Sure up the the City Creek Mall the complaint alleges the Mormon investment fund should lose tax exempt status because it's spending money on Commercial Investments if they do something that's illegal I'm going to call them out on it because that's the right thing to do and they taught me that in a statement to The Fifth Estate the church said it did use money from the investment fund for the mall but specified it was earnings of invested Reserve funds so profits from the tithing not the tithing itself Lars says more than anything the IRS needs to investigate do you think that this is a case of fraud of course I do absolutely it's fraud when contacted the IRS wouldn't discuss the status of the complaint with us back in Canada we learned the secret fun was used to invest in corporations like Shopify Banks and energy companies but the church's Financial footprint in Canada is even bigger than that it's closed a billion billiots in Canada now what exactly those assets are is hard to track down but a land title search has revealed at least six ranches including this sprawling property in Southern Alberta we comb through hundreds of entries and dozens of land databases those ranches add up to 60 000 Acres with an estimated value between 200 and 300 million dollars outside of the church's inner sanctum no one knows the church's net worth but it insists a generous portion of its wealth goes to charity critics of of of the church and in particular a number of ex-mormons who I've spoken to both in the United States and Australia so the church compared to other other religions or a number of christened nominations is actually it's not a very charitable entity it doesn't spend a lot of money out there it doesn't create hospitals it doesn't create social welfare it doesn't you know do soup kitchens that kind of thing what they've done is they've manipulated not only the general like congregations or the general membership but they've duped governments that are strapped for cash as it is the the church is taking away government's ability to fund Health Care the ability to fund education the ability to provide other essential Services they've done it at the expense of taxpayer dollars we'd been requesting our own interview with the media shy Mormons for months even knocking on their door at the Salt Lake City headquarters well the communications person we've been trying to reach now for weeks to get an interview with somebody from the church we're told is now out of town and unavailable and there's no one else we can speak to and they will not accept walk-in interviews with any official from the church so the kind lady at reception said you're out of luck in an emailed statement the church says it believes in obeying the law and the church and its Affiliated entities pay all taxes and levies as required adding these entities also contribute to local communities and economies Christ was mischaracterized we have been mischaracterized since 1830 when the church was re-established that's always been the case I don't think it will ever go away we don't like it but we don't spend all of our time trying to respond to it we have a mission to fulfill and we're moving forward to accomplish that mission and our whistleblowers in three different countries say it's time for the church to be transparent about its wealth time to open up the Mormon's books most churches in this country run on one to seven million dollar operating budgets they make money from bake sales small community congregationalist type churches you know shouldn't be subjected to a severe burden of reporting but Giga churches have to and their mega churches in this country maybe there are a few in Canada too but in this country there is one giga church and it's the Mormon Church it makes me feel pretty nauseous to be quite honest because although although it's good to see a church investing funds in Blue Chip Investments that has to be balanced against how those funds could be used to benefit the lives of individuals and families and even if it were only individuals and families within the church a lot of people who are suffering could have their suffering alleviated If instead instead of diverting those monies into investment they invested in individuals and Families do you fear that by speaking out you're you're jeopardizing a lot oh absolutely one thing um because I I am still a member of the church I still hold membership there oftentimes what will happen is that if if the church considers someone to have broken those covenants or to have spoken ill that they will excommunicate that individual and then I thought about my kids I thought about my kids and how I wanted them to know that they can make changes and then I decided you know what I'm not ashamed of what I did I am not afraid of anything that has come out of this and I want my kids to know that I wanted to be an example for them to show them that they can be comfortable with who they are whatever they are and to never turn their back on themselves there's definitely been a change in perspective the church teaches that the temple should always be that that focal point in your life the temple has become that physical reminder of of greed for me

Channel: The Fifth Estate

Views: 969,071

Keywords: Mormon church, Mormon, investigation, Brigham Young University, Utah, Canada, CBC Fifth, CBC Fifth Estate, The Fifth Estate, Mormonism, Mormon tithing, tithing, charity, LDS church, LDS, Latter-day Saints, tax, tax free, CBC, CBC News

Id: NgxGYUyvJio

Length: 43min 16sec (2596 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Dzotshen]

Religion is the longest running scam in history: economically, socially, psychologically, culturally

[u/Spensauras-Rex]

Transparency, transparency, transparency... Why is that so hard? I gave thousands of dollars to this corporation before I was finally able to see it as the fraud that it is. Being conditioned since birth that this organization is God's one true church does a number on you. Out of all the problems that stems from this church's finances, the one that finally caused me to throw in the towel was the lack of transparency. I thought I was actually helping charitable efforts with my money because I trusted the leaders. Boy was I wrong.

[u/weekapaughead]

I just want to remind everyone that the church claims they need the money in the event of a world catastrophe but during covid they did absolutely nothing with the $120Billion they have.

[u/NikonuserNW]

The Mormon church is also having legal problems in Australia by funneling money through shell companies the get tax advantages they wouldn’t get otherwise. I’m sure what they’re doing is legal, but for a religion that claims to be Christ’s only church, it’s very shady.

https://amp.smh.com.au/national/mormons-inc-church-accused-of-multinational-tax-rort-20220330-p5a98p.html

[u/Ashe_Faelsdon]

If you have a BILLION dollars as a "christian" church, you're obviously not "christian". Go kick rocks, quit praising yourself for not raising the poor, infirm, and crippled.

[u/omgzzwtf]

Not surprising considering they consider the United States to be the location of Zion, (God’s holy land). Why would they invest anything in a different country?

[u/gilwendeg]

I was a Mormon for 35 years. At one time I was the manager of the England Missionary Training Centre. I would love for the church’s finances to be investigated and for me to get my tithing back! I know the church gives something like 1% of its income to the needy, most of it gets transferred to the US (from the UK). Much of the charitable work done by the church is done by volunteer members, not hard cash.

[u/First_Artichoke2390]

Anybody surprised by this?

[u/SweetCheekSteve]

No way! A church misappropriating charitable funds?