Author: Barry Bowen

Investigating the Parsonage Exemption: What Would Televangelists Pay if Houses Weren’t Tax Exempt?

Barry Bowen


(Photo: Inside Edition shows the outside of televangelist Ron Carpenter’s luxurious Fremont, California-parsonage.)

Background

Inside Edition recently investigated the topic of tax-exempt parsonages. The news report featured drone footage and pictures of some of America’s largest church-owned mansions.  Investigative reporter Lisa Guerrero attempted to interview televangelist Jesse Duplantis regarding his residence, but he refused to answer questions.

Associate Pastor and Political Scientist Ryan Burge told Inside Edition, “If you have a multi-million-dollar house, your property tax bill could be thirty, forty, fifty thousand dollars a year. But if it’s classified as a parsonage, now you don’t have to pay property taxes on that home. That $50,000 could pay the salary of an elementary school teacher in your local public school.”

The property-tax exemption on church and ministry-owned homes is governed by state laws. It differs from the parsonage housing allowance which was created by Congress and involves a tax exemption from the federal income tax.

In 2021, a Houston Chronicle investigation identified 28 parsonages in Texas worth more than $1 million.

Continue reading “Investigating the Parsonage Exemption: What Would Televangelists Pay if Houses Weren’t Tax Exempt?”

How Two Non-Profits Paid Over $103 Million to Companies Owned by Jay Sekulow and Sister-in-Law

Barry Bowen


(Photo: Jay Sekulow interviewed in ACLJ Chief Counsel Biography)

Attorney Jay Sekulow, who represented former President Donald Trump during his 2020 impeachment hearing and has argued religious liberty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, seems to be playing a shell game with his financial dealings by using confusingly similar corporate names and leaving out big chunks of information in his non-profit 990 reports to the IRS.

In fact, in fifteen years, two non-profits Sekulow is associated with have paid over $103 million to for-profit companies owned by him and his sister-in-law.

Same Name Game

Jay Sekulow serves as president of Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE), a non-profit organization with 13 employees, that fundraises with aggressive direct mail solicitation.

Jay Sekulow also serves as CEO for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

Adding to the confusion, CASE uses the trade name/DBA “American Center for Law & Justice” and conducts fundraising with the trade name. Trinity Foundation describes this practice as the Same Name Game.

There is a very slight difference: The trade name contains an ampersand “&” while the ACLJ’s legal name doesn’t.

(Screenshot: from Page 1 of CASE 2022 Form 990)

When two different non-profit organizations use the same name, this can be problematic for donors, especially if the organizations have a different purpose.

Continue reading “How Two Non-Profits Paid Over $103 Million to Companies Owned by Jay Sekulow and Sister-in-Law”

The Cost of Traveling by Private Jet: Televangelist Jet Circles the Globe

Barry Bowen

(Photo: Pixabay)

Joyce Meyer Ministries’ Gulfstream G4 jet flew to Nepal in January for a mission trip celebrating the grand opening of a church building in Attarkhel, Nepal which was funded by its donors.

Hand of Hope, the disaster relief organization and mission outreach of Joyce Meyer Ministries, also funded the drilling of a water well and provided a health clinic for the community.

Hand of Hope operates as an integrated auxiliary of Joyce Meyer Ministries, and for this reason, is not required to file a Form 990 which would disclose salaries and financial information that religious watchdog organizations are interested in reviewing.

During the mission trip the ministry jet accumulated approximately 35.5 flight hours as it circled the globe.

The jet departed on January 14th from Spirit of Saint Louis Airport and landed in Manchester, England. The first leg of the trip to Nepal took 7 hours and 50 minutes.


(Photo: First travel day)

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Assets of Ministry’s Holding Company Increase by $501 Million, CEO and Family Paid Over $11 Million

Barry Bowen

(Photo: David Cerullo, president of The Inspirational Network)

The Inspirational Network’s latest Form 990 Information Return is filled with bombshells for anyone interested in following the money of religious and secular TV broadcasting. Two bombshells stand out: Extravagant compensation for executives and massive assets buried in fine print.

David Cerullo, CEO of The Inspirational Network which operates the western-themed INSP cable TV channel (religious programming airs in the middle of the night), is ranked as one of America’s highest paid religious non-profit CEOs.

In 2022, Cerullo received $9 million in compensation, doubling the income he received in 2021.

In 15 years, from 2008 through 2022, David Cerullo received $59 million in compensation from The Inspirational Network and related organizations.

For four consecutive years David Cerullo has ranked at the top of MinistryWatch’s annual list of highly paid ministry executives.

David Cerullo’s wife Barbara and son Benjamin also appear on the MinistryWatch list by serving as executives at The Inspirational Network.

The following screenshot shows 2022 compensation for the three Cerullo  family members. The total compensation paid to the Cerullos for 2022 is $11,116,432.

By comparing compensation reported in 2021, shown in the screenshot below, it is clear that Benjamin Cerullo’s compensation also doubled and Barbara Cerullo’s compensation dramatically increased.

David Cerullo also serves as president of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism (MCWE) which was founded by his father. MCWE does not file a Form 990 as it claims to be a church. Therefore, it is unknown if MCWE also pays David Cerullo a salary.

The second highest paid executive at The Inspirational Network is general counsel and corporate secretary Dale Ardizzone who was paid $3,227,671 in 2022.

Most compensation for Ardizzone and David and Barbara Cerullo come from related organizations of The Inspirational Network.

Continue reading “Assets of Ministry’s Holding Company Increase by $501 Million, CEO and Family Paid Over $11 Million”

$1.7 Million Missing: Is This Embezzlement of Funds or Terrible Accounting?

Barry Bowen

More than $1.7 million in financial surpluses have mysteriously disappeared from two religious non-profits led by prophetess Juanita Bynum.

Annual financial surpluses generated by the organizations were not reported as assets. This failure to report total assets should serve as a red flag to potential donors.

The following screenshot from Juanita Bynum International Inc.’s 2021 Form 990 shows a surplus of $592,324 in 2021 and $336,926 in 2020 on line 19. None of these funds were listed in Total Assets on line 20.

The following spreadsheet reveals $1,764,427 in surpluses (net income) not reported as assets from 2016 to 2021. Juanita Bynum International Inc. converted from a for-profit company to a non-profit entity in 2020, which explains why the organization did not file a 990 prior to 2020.  In other words, when an organization takes in over half a million dollars in one year and spends less than $40,000 WHERE DID THE MONEY GO if there are no assets.

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When Was Jesus Born?

Barry Bowen

 

By Barry Bowen and Pete Evans

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” – Proverbs 25:2

Prophecies in the Bible have provided important clues for understanding the purposes of God. However, some of these clues are easily overlooked.

Trinity Foundation’s late founder Ole Anthony was fascinated by the question, “When (what time of year) was Jesus born?”

After studying the Bible and major events in Jesus’ life occurring on Jewish feast days, as well as the writings of biblical scholars and first century AD Jewish historian Josephus, Ole concluded that Jesus was born on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Ole believed that God created the biblical holidays as a liturgical calendar to reveal God’s redemption plan for humanity.

The Bible provides a clue in the Book of Luke regarding when Jesus was born. An angel appeared to Mary, informing her that she was pregnant with Jesus and that her relative Elizabeth was six months pregnant. Therefore, Jesus would have been born about six months after his cousin John the Baptist.

The time of John’s conception can be estimated because his birth was prophesied during the time his father Zechariah the priest was serving in the Temple.

“Assuming John was conceived within the week after Zechariah returned from his temple service, that would yield a date for the conception of Jesus six months later in mid-December (on or close to Hannukah), with his birth in the fall, around mid-September (Rosh Hashanah).” – Community on Columbia Bible study

Christian researchers have also searched for the Star of Bethlehem believing it could provide a clue for the birth of Jesus.

The Book of Matthew in the Bible tells of a group of astronomers searching for the baby Jesus after seeing a star that announced Jesus’ birth.

Scholars and researchers have reached conflicting conclusions about the Star of Bethlehem with some believing it was a star that went supernova in the constellation Coma representing a woman with a baby in her lap, others that it a was a shooting star (comet), and still others believing the Magi observed an alignment of planets.

While the accounts of Jesus birth in Matthew and Luke focus on creating a historical record, the Book of John provides a theological foundation for understanding this key event:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

 

Jesse Duplantis’ Instant Gratification Theology

Barry Bowen

Jesus taught his followers that sacrificial obedience would be rewarded, but  prosperity gospel preachers exploit these verses for fundraising.

Televangelist Jesse Duplantis promotes a theology of instant gratification, creating unrealistic and unbiblical expectations. During a September 20th telethon, televangelist Jesse Duplantis told his audience:

“I always believe for the now. I mean when you want something, you want it now. Listen, we are Americans. We created fast food. You understand? We don’t like it if they spend 30 seconds more on a hamburger. We want it now. Well, let me tell you something. You need your harvest now, don’t you? Certainly, you do. Why not? That’s not being greedy. I mean it’s called growth.” (We call it greed.)

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Churches Have Little to Fear from the IRS: Scare Tactics Don’t Match the Reality:  List of 2023 Disciplinary Actions

Barry Bowen

 

Church accountants sometimes scare pastors with stories of IRS audits. The church accounting firm Chitwood & Chitwood warns, “There have been many small Churches that have encountered the wrath of the IRS. Don’t be one of them.”

However, that claim is false. Very few churches, large or small, are audited or criminally investigated by the IRS.

How frequent are church audits? The Wagenmaker & Oberly law firm reports that 2-years between October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2022, the IRS launched 14 church tax examinations. Compare with over 400,000 churches in the U.S. and we here at Trinity Foundation frequently receive calls from informants and victims complaining about fraud and embezzlement in their churches.

In fact, no churches lost their tax-exempt status in 2023 due to IRS disciplinary actions resulting from church audits.

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Church, Pastor and Ministry Leader Homes Sold in 2023

Barry Bowen

According to Psychology Today, “Our home conveys messages about who we are.” This is true about pastors whose homes range from modest to extravagant.

More than 2,000 years ago the prophet Micah wrote, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

The following homes were sold in 2023.

While we avoid posting current addresses of living religious leaders to avoid doxing them, this article does link to real estate website listings for former homes. In some cases, these pastors have lived in homes financially unobtainable by most of their church members.

For comparison’s sake, the lowest priced property on this list is $455,000 which is more expensive than most homes sold in America. According to real estate website Redfin, “The median price of a home in the United States is currently $414,633.”

Each of the beach houses and beach condos on this list were secondary homes for their owners.

Glen Berteau Ministries

Glen and Deborah Berteau, founders of The House Modesto megachurch,  sold their Florida beach house in February for $795,000.

Redfin reports, “Location is everything and this Florida Cottage is within 1/2 mile to the beach & just 100 yards to Legion Park, a public boat ramp/park on the bay.”

Hillsong

Hillsong Property Holdings LLC acquired a home in Newport Beach, one of America’s most expensive cities in 2015 for $2,180,000 and sold it in 2023 for $3,525,000.

Investigators and journalists wondered if this home was the residence of Brian Houston, the founder of megachurch Hillsong.

Redfin describes the property: “A true live/work residence. Downstairs includes a large open Commercial Office Space that has its own separate entrance and its own full bathroom. Parking for 6 cars including an attached 2-car garage.”

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Non-profit Ministry Compensates Founder Almost $1 Million While Running $580,000 Deficit

Barry Bowen

(Photo: Cindy Trimm appearing in Bible study on YouTube.)

In 2021, Cindy Trimm received $984,549 in compensation from Cindy Trimm Ministries International. Meanwhile, the ministry generated almost $1.5 million in revenue while spending more than $2 million, resulting in a deficit of $580,607.

Trimm’s compensation was disclosed in a Form 990 filed with the IRS.

In 2020, Trimm received $72,000 in compensation, so in 2021 she received a 1,267% pay increase. However, the ministry failed to disclose how it determined Trimm’s compensation.

(Photo: No boxes were selected on Schedule J of the 2021 Form.)

Under normal circumstances a compensation study or compensation committee would recommend the salary for Trimm. During a board meeting,  Trimm would recuse herself and the remaining board members would vote to approve or reject the compensation recommendation.

Why would Trimm receive such a large pay increase? Where did the money go?

In September 2021, Trimm purchased a home in McDonough, Georgia, for $775,000. According to the Redfin real estate website, the property is in a “gated golf course community” and now worth $1.8 million.

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