Norman Quintero, CEO of TeleAmerica Television Network and Senior Pastor of Iglesia Getsemani in Anaheim, California, has sued Benny Hinn, Hinn-associate Donald B. Price and publicist Ronn Torossian for defamation. Hinn was served the lawsuit while speaking during a “Miracle Service.”  The exchange can be viewed on YouTube.

In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court Orange County, California, Quintero alleges that Price published a website “to destroy Dr. Quintero’s personal reputation.” According to the lawsuit, “The Website states, or at least implies, that Dr. Quintero has been convicted on criminal charges. The statement is false.”

While the offending website norman-quintero.com is now offline, a backup copy of the website can be viewed at the Internet Archive.

Price, a loyal officer at Benny Hinn Ministries, also runs eMinistries Consulting and Family Altar of the Air.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit lacks many details on Hinn’s alleged role in the defamation.  Hinn’s alleged role will probably surface during court testimony.

The court battles began in 2021, with Price suing Quintero in Dallas County Court “for tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective contract, defamation, and business disparagement, stemming from a failed real estate transaction,” as one court filing summarizes the case.

The case took a quick detour in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas before being remanded to the lower court because of a question about Quintero’s residency.

However, the court may have questioned the wrong person’s residency. Price’s lawsuit says, “Plaintiff, Donald B. Price, is an individual residing in Dallas County, Texas.”

Trinity Foundation investigators, which are based in Dallas, searched Dallas County Appraisal District and found zero evidence of Price residing in Dallas County. Why would Price live in Dallas, when his “ministry” Family Altar of the Air owns a 14,500 square-foot mansion worth $6 million a short distance away in Collin County?

Family Altar of the Air also owns a Florida mansion worth over $4 million.

Just how many homes does Price and his organizations own? Is this good stewardship?

Perhaps these “ministry” leaders should sell an extra home to fund their ministry rather than rely on the generosity of donors.

 

Missing money is a big red flag for investigators. So, let’s examine the Form 990s filed by televangelist Juanita Bynum’s new non-profit organization which was incorporated in 2016.

But first, a math quiz: Zero minus zero equals …

For 2016, The Juanita Bynum II Ministry Inc (That’s the official ministry name) reported zero total assets and zero liabilities. Subtracting zero from zero yielded an amazing answer: $163,854 in net assets.

What happened to net assets in 2017? They disappeared.

For 2017, the ministry reported total revenue of $383,272 and total expenses of $242,450 resulting in a surplus of $140,822 which disappeared with the net assets reported from the previous year.

For 2018, the ministry reported total revenue of $639,280 and total expenses of $399,139 resulting in a surplus of $240,141 which also disappeared.

At the end of 2018, the non-profit organization reported zero net assets.

The IRS should conduct an audit to determine where the $544,817 in unreported surpluses went.

Zero Accountability

Another troubling issue was noticed while reviewing the 990s. On page one of each 990, the ministry reports zero board members. There is zero accountability for the organization.

 

 

 

 

((Photo: Pictured is Joel Osteen’s Texas residence. Joel Osteen’s 2nd home is located in Newport Coast, California, 1,175 nautical miles away from Houston where he pastors Lakewood Church.)

One of our goals at Trinity Foundation is to engage in explanatory journalism.

According to Wikipedia, “Explanatory journalism or explanatory reporting is a form of reporting that attempts to present ongoing news stories in a more accessible manner by providing greater context than would be presented in traditional news sources.”

We seek to explain the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions.

After publishing an article in February about million-dollar pastor mansions, we continued to perform property searches and have uncovered many examples of pastors living in luxury.

Several patterns were observed during this investigation. We noticed pastors acquiring homes hundreds of miles from their churches. How can these pastors effectively serve a congregation when they live so far away?

Some pastors lead churches in different states, traveling by jet between multiple homes. Is this practice good stewardship?

Our article about Long Distance Ministry will be published next week. These investigations take time and money. We subscribe to various databases to conduct nation-wide property searches.

Today, September 22nd, is North Texas Giving Day. Thousands of people are giving to favorite charities. We are thankful for all donations given to Trinity Foundation. They help us more than you will ever know.

North Texas Giving Day Support …

We are a public, non-profit 501 (C) 3 organization and can only continue with your help.  You can donate here.   Please consider monthly support of our investigations.

Our finances have shrunk lately and we could use your help.

Thanks,

From the folks at Trinity Foundation

In the name of privacy, laws often protect devious administrators working inside religious non-profit organizations and churches. Journalists and concerned donors are denied access to critical government information.

Let’s look at three examples.

• Money Trail Not Available

During the Great Depression, religious book publisher Zondervan launched a small Christian bookstore. The little retail business went through several name changes and grew into America’s largest religious bookstore chain, Family Christian Stores.

Marketplace changes, brought about by digital song downloads from Apple and book sales through Amazon, resulted in Family Christian’s sales declining.

In 2013, as Family Christian Stores reorganized to form a non-profit organization, Family Christian TR, LLC was registered in the island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, famous for its offshore banking. Two years later, Family Christian filed for bankruptcy and the financial trust ceased operation.

Family Christian’s bankruptcy hurt numerous publishers of books, CDs and DVDs as the organization failed to pay distributors for product.

Is it possible that some revenues, which would have compensated distributers, were embezzled and then transferred to the aforementioned account as a tax haven?

Meanwhile, unconfirmed allegations of money laundering by deceased televangelists also persist.

There may exist a paper trail providing evidence of financial crimes. Banks are required to report customers making deposits of $10,000 or more in cash. However, these Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) are protected by the Bank Secrecy Act and cannot be obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests.

Congress could amend the Bank Secrecy Act to allow journalists to submit FOIA requests to the Treasury Department for SAR of deceased individuals and companies no longer in operation.

Continue reading “Privacy Laws Prevent Financial Transparency, Hurt Efforts to Investigate Religious Fraud”

(Photo: Church governance models determine whether church “members”  or board members can remove a pastor or priest.)

“Who can fire the pastor?”  It’s a key question to ask when investigating the power structure of churches and ministries as a growing number of pastors adopt barriers to accountability which prevent them from being fired.

Sometimes corrupt pastors are protected by family members and yes men serving on church boards or corporation documents providing dictatorial powers.

Church articles of incorporation and church bylaws determine if church attendees can be members and if they are allowed to vote on church business.

In 2011, televangelist Eddie Long settled lawsuits with five men accusing him of sexual assault. Long did not disclose how much New Birth Missionary Baptist Church (NBMBC) spent to resolve the litigation. Concerned church attendees lacked the ability to remove the pastor from the pulpit.

Continue reading “Who Can Fire the Pastor?”

(Article updated with information about televangelists obtaining loans from mafia-connected individuals.)

The three-episode Discovery+ documentary series King of the Con tells the life story Barry Minkow, an infamous conman turned pastor, who subsequently robbed a church of $3 million dollars. The Bible warns of people like Minkow, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” – Proverbs 26:11 NIV

Minkow’s life could serve as a playbook for corrupt televangelists as so many of the same techniques are repeatedly used.

Through interviews Minkow describes how he rationalized his criminal behavior. “Looking back, it sounds crazy but at the time I really didn’t think it was so bad.”

As a teenager, Minkow started ZZZZ Best, a carpet cleaning company, in Inglewood, a small city near Los Angeles. When he was 19 years old, ZZZZ Best went public. As investors purchased stocks, the company’s value soared and a year later was worth $280 million. (Wikipedia provides a good overview of Minkow’s crimes.)

Minkow hired publicist Jeri Carr to promote his company. Local media enjoyed telling the story of a high school student launching a successful business. Carr and the media didn’t know that Minkow was also operating an illegal insurance restoration scheme. Insurance companies were billed for work that was never performed.

Early in the history in ZZZZ Best, Minkow needed funding to grow and turned to mafia-connected Jack Catain for a loan. The mafia generated large profits by loan sharking which is providing high-interest loans to people and businesses that banks considered too risky to serve. This may surprise many Christians but at least two televangelists have received loans from mafia-connected figures.

In his autobiography The Soul-Winning Century, Rex Humbard revealed how he received a loan from Jimmy Hoffa, the infamous president of the Teamsters. The union’s pension fund also financed criminal enterprises as Hoffa made lucrative loans to mafia, according to Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith. 

Robert Tilton’s church obtained a loan from Herman Beebe, an associate of Carlos Marcello, former head of the New Orleans mafia. In 1993, Tilton testified about the loan in federal court, “After we had gotten the loan from his insurance company we began to hear rumors and people saying that when you borrowed money from these particular people, that if you missed a payment they were prone to come and take over your properties, and that they were the type of people that we did not want to have any type of association with, and so we paid the loan off as quickly as possible.”

After ZZZZ Best’s Ponzi scheme collapsed following critical news coverage and a federal investigation, a jury convicted Minkow of fraud.

Continue reading “Documentary Reveals the Mind of a Pastor Conman”