Is the Mormon Church honest in all of its dealings? The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for obscuring the Church’s money and misstating Ensign Peak’s control over the Church’s investment decisions. To settle the charges, Ensign Peak agreed to pay a $4 million penalty and the Church agreed to pay a $1 million penalty.
SEC Order Against Ensign Peak Advisors & The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
If people want to help they can call the Senate finance committee and urge them to take action and have a hearing on this issue.
Senate Finance Committee phone: 202-224-4515
Senate Finance Committee fax: 202-228-0554
Religion Unplugged article with full Senate Finance Committee memo:
Whistleblower Details New Allegations About $100 Billion LDS Fund
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Show Notes:
Related Mormon Stories Content
Sources
- David Nielsen’s Declaration | PDF | Summary Judgment (scribd.com)
- SEC Order Against Ensign Peak Advisors & The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- The Church, the Investment Advisor, and the SEC | Sam Brunson
News Coverage
- Church Issues Statement on SEC Settlement | Church Newsroom
- Read whistleblower David Nielsen’s new sworn statement on the LDS Church’s handling of ‘tithing’ | Salt Lake Tribune
- Church settles case with SEC over financial reporting | Deseret News
- Whistleblower Details New Allegations About $100 Billion LDS Fund | Religion Uplugged
Other Resources:
- Widow’s Mite Report
- WSJ Podcasts: Bad Bets
- Would Latter-day Saints be upset if they knew all about their church’s wealth? | Mormonland
- LDS Discussions Tiktok on EPA
17 Responses
There is a Petition for Financial Transparency
bycommonconsent.org
I don’t believe you guys addressed this but let me connect some dots for you.
How does revelation occur with the upper Church leadership? Consensus. Unanimity.
Thus, we can conclude that because the first presidency unanimously agreed to do these things, the first presidency received revelation to break the law.
John,
I would like to see the important wording Mark used about “Top Leadership” in the short synopsis about this episode. Thanks, Keep doing what Senator John Lewis said “Make Good Trouble”
You asked why they aren’t prosecuting the fund managers.
1. It’s possible that they are. The SEC lacks criminal jurisdiction and would have to turn it over to the Dept of justice. In the meantime, the SEC wrapped up its enforcement action against the church.
2. It’s also possible that the church agreed to settle in exchange for the SEC not pursuing the fund managers. The SEC may well have been happy to get the win and not go after dupe church employees.
Speaking of 12 LLCs and 12 apostles. I heard that 2000 yrs ago Mary went in the bathroom and asked “Who left the seat up?” not knowing Jesus just came of there. ,😁
Somebody should go to jail. Where does the “Buck Stop”?
I just called the Senate Finance committee phone number. A nice lady picked up. We had a short chat. All the personal information she wanted was my zip code. Easy Peasy.
Perfection they are not. Maybe the Mormon membership will tamper down the worship of them. Nah!
I posted this on Mormon Stories as well. I am a social worker working in a community mental health agency in Utah. This means I work with those people who are struggling financially enough that they qualify for Medicaid insurance. In the twenty plus years I have done this work I have heard time and again my clients report that they went to their bishop for help with rent, utilities, even food and have been turned away. Sometimes someone gets a good bishop who will offer some help, but for the most part they are declined. My clients have reported in the last several years that when they went to their bishop for assistance they were told they have to take financial responsibility classes through the church in order to get any help, even for their basic necessities. Then came a report a couple of years ago that the State of Utah is able to use Federal money, earmarked for low income programs, for other things because we have the Church in the state that says they help the poor. So now the most in need people in Utah can’t get as much help from the State and they are getting little to no help from the Church. After listening to this podcast and others this weekend, it dawned on me that there is another ugly layer to this. If the money they are using for these funds is money from the interest on tithing, they have an additional incentive to not use tithing money to help the poor and needy. The less they use of the tithing for these purposes, the more “excess” funds they have to transfer over to investment firms such as Ensign Peak. I sense this is much more deliberate than even this SEC report shows.
The numbers are astronomical. It occurs to me that the church has enough to give all 16 or 17 million of the members they claim one million dollars each with barely a hiccup to the Ensign Peak portfolio. That’s one million to every man, woman and child they claim as a member leaving them with a measly 99,983,000,000 still in the horde.
Well……No. 100 billion divided by 17 million is $5882 per member. The membership could only be 100,000 members to each receive 1 millions dollars
This is dismaying to hear – after religiously paying my tithing on my gross income AND child support payments as a single mom, I’m terribly disappointed to hear that my hard-earned tithing payments, provided at great sacrifice to myself and my children, have been invested instead of being put to the kinds of uses I imagine Jesus Christ himself would want to see. Eliminating child poverty, illness, human/sex trafficking, domestic abuse…basically these billions of dollars could be going to make substantial inroads into solving the world’s worst problems. I don’t get it. I’m seriously considering directing my tithing to a local charity that I know is helping real people in need in my area instead of paying tithing. I realize my temple recommend is likely to be taken away if I do this.
The LDS Church has always been shady in its dealings since the days of Joseph Smith. No matter what church authorities say or do Mormon apologists tend to defend their actions under the belief that these men are supposedly inspired by God. Faithful members of the LDS Church refuse to believe any negativity because it would show that they were all duped and taken advantage of for years. The Church had tried to suppress their history but to no avail. Will members leave the Church now that they know the truth? Members need to think critically for themselves! Is all this Gods plan? To establish great wealth? I feel sorry for members continuing to believe this is ok.
I may be blind, but I can’t find the affidavit of David to assist James Huntsman’s motion to dismiss where Mark cites (see 47:48 of the podcast) a meeting with Ensign Peak and the church where it was decided that the 13F cannot be disclosed because people would stop paying tithing.
Can someone please help me locate it?
I just tried posting a comment but it doesn’t seem to have worked. 2nd time lucky.
I’m trying to find the document Mark references at 47:48 in the podcast about David being in a meeting where it was decided that the portfolio shouldn’t be disclosed as it would cause people to stop paying tithing. Can someone please help me find the document and source for the reference?
There was many “pants on fire” claims in this podcast. Thanks for posting the link to the evidence for all to see.
When I think about how faithfully I paid my tithing for years, even when I literally couldn’t afford to do so, I am so angry to know that this sacrifice was unnecessary and that it was dishonored by the church in the way they used it to enrich its coffers. During those years I had no savings to fall back on because I was being a “faithful member” and actually believed that the church was honoring my sacrifice by using it to help the poor and to help build churches wherever they were needed. What a joke! Jesus tells us that we can’t serve both God and money (the accumulation of it beyond what’s necessary to meet one’s basic needs). He also says that where our treasure is, is also the place we most want to be. The church must decide if it is a religion or a multinational mega corporation. It can’t be both.
It also upsets me that the church is telling members in poor communities and countries that they have to pay tithing on their meager resources and that Jesus expects them to starve or be evicted from their homes because he expects them to pay tithing first. Tithing amounts to a regressive tax on the poor. How can we counteract this terrible teaching in Africa, Asia, parts of South and Central America and get the word out to not only the members but to anyone considering joining the church that the church doesn’t need their money and to inform them as to how their tithing dollars are actually being used? These people deserve to be fully informed.