Your Donation Enters You in Our Brazos River Getaway Raffle

 

photo from top floor of fire tower overlooking the “Brazos de Dios” (arms of God) River

The drawing will be held on March 31st.

Thank you for your gifts to Trinity Foundation. We believe that you’re making a difference helping us expose the egregious misuse and huge waste of donor money while helping us provide a body of research available to the public via our investigative journalism. We estimate that for every $35 we receive, that amount “buys” roughly one hour of investigating (including occupancy, salaries, etc.).

And now, to the raffle drawing…

For a one-time gift of $100 we would like to enter your name in a drawing to receive a free 3-day / 3 night stay for up to five people at a Texas ranch on the Brazos River about an hour west of Fort Worth, plus $250 to the winner to help pay for food. Enjoy stunning views in a four-floor fire lookout on a cliff above the scenic and historic Brazos. (link here). It is necessary to climb stairs here but those with mobility issues can choose the main ranch house if preferred. (link here). Winners must be able to provide their own transportation to and from the ranch, which is about 10 minutes from restaurants and grocery stores in Minieral Wells. The drawing will be held on March 31st.

If you want our newsletter the entry form is on our Home page to the right.  If you already subscribe, we appreciate your interest.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions about our investigations, if you would like to give us a tip about potential fraud, or if you know a victim of religious fraud that would like to speak with us.

The Role of Correctional Facilities in Preventing Religious Fraud

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-bunk-bed-with-striped-linen-behind-bars-6064890/

Guest Article by Pamela Foster

In-Depth Exploration: The Harsh Reality of Religious Fraud

In the realm of religious organizations, revered as beacons of moral guidance, the incidence of financial fraud presents a jarring contradiction. It’s not just about the money; this breach of trust cuts to the heart of what these institutions stand for. We’ve got to face it squarely: strong oversight and proactive strategies are crucial to nip these problems in the bud.

Correctional Facilities: Beyond Punishment to Prevention

Correctional institutions, traditionally viewed as endpoints for the convicted, assume a crucial preventive role in religious fraud. Prisons act as a stark reminder that abusing funds meant for religious use carries heavy repercussions. Rehabilitation programs that educate can help shape ethical, transparent leaders.

Continue reading “The Role of Correctional Facilities in Preventing Religious Fraud”

“God Told Me” to Pocket Cryptocurrency Invested Funds—a New Twist on Religious Affinity Fraud

(Photo: Pastor Eligio Regalado)

January 16th, 2024–Colorado State’s Attorney General charged Pastor Eligio Regalado, whose surname ironically can mean ‘Gifted’ or ‘Given’, his wife Kaitlyn (also goes by the name Kathy), and their companies INDXCOIN, LLC, KINGDOM WEALTH EXCHANGE INC, KINGDOM WEALTH EXCHANGE LLC, GRACE LED MARKETERS, LLC, etc. on (also goes by the name Kathy) with civil fraud for creating, marketing, and selling a cryptocurrency called INDXcoin and then spending over a third of the invested funds ($1.3 million) on themselves.

Regalado, who pastors the online only Victorious Grace Church, announced his plan last April and soon sold the crypto coins to his and other Christian communities in the Denver under the moniker “Kingdom Wealth Exchange, LLC”.  The project launched in June and then shut down in November.

We hope believers will take note and beware of religious affinity fraud. Affinity fraud leverages and exploits inherent trust within a group. For example, a fraudster may target a specific religious congregation. Oftentimes, the person will try to enlist the help of the leader of the group to market the investment scheme. In which case, the leader becomes an unwitting pawn in the fraudulent scheme. In this case, however, the pastor was the perpetrator.

One well-known example is Bernard Madoff who targeted Jewish communities.  It’s not just a cliché when we say there is more money stolen in the name of God than any other way.

Ms. Tung Chan, Securities Commissioner for Colorado, said “We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies.”

Commissioner Chan’s civil complaint against the Regalado couple claims that from June 2022 to April 2023, the ill-fated crypto exchange raised more than $3.2 million from over 300 investors and that the couple’s sales pitches were filled with “prayer and quotes from the Bible, encouraging investors to have faith that their investment … would lead to ‘abundance’ and ‘blessings.’”

INDX Coin began trading its cryptocurrency on June 22, 2023.  In its launch video that same day, “Pastor” Regalado said, “So this is the Kingdom Way, the Kingdom Way is to distribute even when you don’t have enough, trusting that God is going to multiply what you give thanks for.”

NOTE: This wishful thinking is one of the basic lies of the so-called “prosperity gospel.”

During INDXcoin’s launch video on Twitter/X, Regalado read Jesus’ miracle of feeding thousands of people with just a few loaves and fishes and applying this spectacular miracle to his Kingdom Wealth Exchange’s cryptocurrency.

Eli Regalado actually admitted to the theft in a video a few days after the charges were filed, saying, “The charges are that Kaitlyn and I pocketed 1.3 million dollars, and I just want to come out and say that those charges are true,” he said, adding, “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel that the Lord told us to do.”

Eli Regalado also said, “It’s not like we had $1 million sitting there and decided to go crazy with it”.  You judge. Commissioner Chan’s legal complaint states that investment proceeds went directly to defendants Eli and Kaitlyn, or was used for their own personal benefit, including jewelry, handbags and lavish vacations and other expenses.

The Regalado couple owns a house and a condo in Lakewood Colorado. The real estate website Redfin says the home is a “2,088 square foot house on a 3.24 acre lot with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms” and that “This home is currently off market. Based on Redfin’s Lakewood data, we estimate the home’s value is $1,126,521.”  Redfin estimates the two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 837 square feet condo is worth $363,985.

Eligio Regalado incorporated the online church in 2020 and is its registered agent.  The articles of incorporation for the church say that “No part of the earnings of the corporation shall inure to the benefit of or be distributable to any private individual or person; provided, however, that the corporation may pay reasonable compensation …” These good intentions lasted less than two years.

Note that according to Commissioner Chan’s civil fraud complaint, Victorious Grace Church has only two employees (Defendants Eli and Kaitlyn) and operates from the Regalado’s house, their recreational vehicle, or from the Regalado’s vacation destinations.

Earlier this month, we published a video about red flags to look out for and here are some we covered plus another one that time didn’t allow us to address:

  • Beware if a person claims to hear from God about what others should do.
  • Beware if a person believes he or she claims they have God’s favor to perform miracles.
  • Beware if a person comes up with a way to raise money for others and then spends it on themselves.
  • Beware if a person tells others they will become wealthy if they give or invest in a certain organization supposedly ordained of God.
  • Beware of online only, TV only, or mail-order-only churches with no actual membership who can, as it happens, literally meet in person.

Many major news outlets reported on the story.

People Magazine: Denver Pastor Says ‘the Lord Told Him’ to Steal $1.3 M from Christians to Remodel Home

CNN: A Colorado pastor says God told him to launch a crypto venture. He’s now accused of pocketing $1.3 million from his followers

BBC: Colorado pastor accused of multimillion dollar crypto scheme

LAW&CRIME: The lord told us to’: Online pastor says God told him to ‘pocket’ $1.3M after charges filed in alleged cryptocurrency scam

We ask our readers a question?  Do you think the Regalados should sell their expensive house and move into their two-bedroom condo and distribute the proceeds of the sale to the defrauded investors?

The answer is obvious.

False Prophets: Televangelists Red Flags to See and Avoid

At the heart of this new almost ten-minute video is our late founder of Trinity Foundation calling for transparency and accountability.  We hope you’ll share it with others.  It deals with red flags to watch out for when encountering charities and non-profits—especially churches or church-related organizations.

We believe you can share this with anyone who is concerned about these snakes in the grass who keep asking for more money and spending huge quantities of it on themselves.

When a church or ministry collapses from scandal, followers often pick up on missed clues.  Some of these clues or red flags to watch out for include high pressure to donate right away, ministry leaders describing their own wealth and/or God’s promised wealth to individuals, false prophesies, and twisted scriptures trying to prove that God needs your money—care of their ministry of course.

Do you ever wonder why televangelists never suggest that you to pick up your cross or be content with the things you have?  These messages are never popular with the masses and come in direct conflict with the American Dream—with mankind’s own inherent greed.

Television programming time slots are quite expensive but also quite lucrative.  It’s Darwinian in nature.  Only the most successful con-artists who can raise the most money from their audiences can maintain their presence on TV.  These include pastors with the best entertainment value, the best music, or the most outrageous actors.

Instead of the true gospel, it has become a kind of anti-gospel which is not really a gospel at all.  It’s little more than a caricature of the truth to tickle one’s ears attempting to maintain a person’s interest.  Please share this video with anyone who cares about the victims of these scammers or with the victims themselves if they are open to watch it.

At the end of the video comes a dream about the Lion of the Tribe of Judah—Christ himself.

Self-Glorified David E. Taylor Loses Tax-Exempt Status: “Prophet”, “Apostle”, “Healer” Continues to be Blight on Christianity

“Faith Healer” David Taylor posing with props—crutches of people supposedly healed.

(photo—screen capture from Taylor’s website)

David Taylor is not an ex-con, and he is still very much alive as opposed to a few other ex-con preachers and one other deceased televangelist who are televised on what may be the United States sleaziest “Christian” television network—Kevin Adell’s ‘Word Network’.  But this is about David Taylor.  How in the world can this snake-oil salesman be allowed to continue soliciting donations, often from the poorest, least educated people in the country?

Tax-exempt status ends

David Taylor’s Joshua Media Ministries lost its tax-exempt status on May 15th, 2021, for failing to file the informative IRS form 990 for three consecutive years—the organization stopped reporting after its 2017 filing.  Despite losing his tax-exempt status, he presses on with gimmicks and projects pleading for donations from unsuspecting donors who probably have no idea that their donations to that organization are no longer tax-deductible.

However, Taylor’s sister organization, “The Kingdom of God Global Church” (KOGC) can operate with impunity since it’s a church and the likelihood of that organization losing its church status is practically non-existent, due to the reluctance of the IRS to audit churches.

For those who aren’t familiar with Mr. Taylor, you’re not alone.  He’s a small-time televangelist in a large pool of television preachers who dresses lavishly as a copy-cat clownish caricature of the more well-known televangelist Benny Hinn and occasionally utters nonsense from a garish golden throne-ish chair in his broadcast studio.

Continue reading “Self-Glorified David E. Taylor Loses Tax-Exempt Status: “Prophet”, “Apostle”, “Healer” Continues to be Blight on Christianity”

Two Overlords and Two Gospels… American Churches Headed the Wrong Way

…with apologies to our friend Joseph Michael Bennett, who wrote a book we recommend, “Two Masters and Two Gospels” (2019).

Last week, multiple news sources reported a Lifeway Research study of 1,002 Protestant Christians strongly indicating that the “Prosperity Gospel” is rapidly rising in America.  These two beliefs go hand in hand to spread this heresy: 1) God wants Christians to prosper, attaining wealth and health and 2) God requires a gift from us humans before he will answer our prayers.

According to the well-crafted study, “Those who say their church teaches that God will bless them if they give more increased from 38% in 2017 to 52% in 2022.”—a huge increase over a short amount of time—and “76% believe that God wants them to prosper financially”, up from 69% in 2017—another rapid increase.

Lifeway Research’s methodology was an “online survey of 1,002 American Protestant churchgoers was conducted September 19-29, 2022, using a national pre-recruited panel.”  Comparisons were made to a 2017 online survey of 1,010 Protestants who attended religious services at least once a month.  They estimate that the “sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error from the panel does not exceed +3.3%”

Prosperity Gospel Parallels the American Dream

If you believe in and think you deserve a share in the American Dream, then your beliefs are probably shared with a large segment of the U.S. public.  If you believe in the prosperity gospel—that God will multiply blessings upon those who richly bless Him with money, it appears you share that belief with a large majority of American Protestant Christians.

“The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone. …(It’s) believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance.”—Investopedia

God helps those who help themselves” is a phrase that’s often mistaken as a scriptural quote.  More on Wikipedia

In some ways, the two beliefs have merged.

The only problem is that neither the Prosperity Gospel nor the American Dream “work”, especially for poor and disadvantaged people.  Both those lies wreak havoc with desperate people who are grasping at something, anything that might alleviate their suffering, even lottery tickets.  Some will be blessed by God materially, but most won’t be.

The “prosperity gospel” message panders to the sensual desire for riches but is the opposite of the message of the cross.  It’s a pious, pleasing message that avoids repentance from self-seeking.  Regarding piety… “The curse of a godless man can sound more pleasant in God’s ear than the Hallelujah of the pious”—Martin Luther (repeated by Dietrich Bonhoffer)

Consider Joel Osteen’s book, “Your Best Life Now” and other similar religious self-help books that ignore or cheapen the grace of Christ.

Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it.”

The cross of Christ means the death of self.  For those of us who call ourselves believers, we prayerfully abandon control of our lives to God.

Signs that your church has embraced the lie of the prosperity gospel, sometimes ever so subtly:  the preacher’s mansions, luxury cars, private jets, and expensive clothing; the lack of transparency (read our article here) regarding the finances of the church; the lack of accountability (he or she answers to no one), i.e., nobody can hire or fire the pastor (read here).

The sin of greed thrives in a climate of secrecy. Therefore, we believe that churches should be required to make their finances available publicly—read about “dark money” in the church here.

Word Network Airs Dead Convicted Statutory Rapist Tony Alamo and Other Ex-Cons, Jim Whittington, and WV Grant

Three ex-con televangelists, including one now deceased, all have compared themselves to the Apostle Paul of the early church… you be the judge.

Tony Alamo AP Photo, Evan Lewis, November 13, 2009

Tony Alamo is dead

Tony Alamo’s boring half hour program currently is broadcast three times weekly on the Word Network: Tuesday’s at 7:30 pm and Thursdays at 3:30 am and 11:30 pm.

Alamo once lived in a lavish, 13,064-square foot mansion with a heart-shaped swimming pool; his ministry once had thousands of followers; and he operated many for-profit businesses.  One of his businesses sold custom-made sequined jackets to celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Mr. T., but that was before he was convicted of income tax evasion and “marrying” underage girls.

He was sentenced to prison twice—175 years the second time in November 2009.

Mr. Alamo was accused of taking young girls across state lines for sex and arrested in October 2008. Five women ranging from age 17 to 33 told jurors that Alamo “married” them in private ceremonies while they were minors, sometimes giving them wedding rings. Each described trips beyond Arkansas’ borders for Alamo’s sexual gratification.[1]

Alamo believed that young girls were fit for marriage. “Consent is puberty,” he told The Associated Press in 2008.[2]  A CNN news clip of his arrest includes audio of Alamo stating that women as young as twelve are ready for marriage as soon as they start their period.[3]

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called out to reporters afterward as he was escorted to a waiting U.S. marshal’s vehicle.[4]

A jury convicted Alamo in July 2009 of 10 counts spanning 11 years and on November 13, 2009, federal Judge Harry F. Barnes sentenced him to the maximum on each count, for a total of 175 years in prison.[5]

He died in a federal prison hospital in North Carolina in May 2017.

More of Alamo’s Legal Encounters

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that “Alamo was arrested on a felony child abuse charge in 1989, but it was dismissed six years later. The case involved an 11-year-old boy who was given 140 blows at Alamo’s directions for minor academic infractions. His family later filed suit and won a $1.4 million judgment against Alamo and his ministry.”[6]

Federal agents raided his properties in 1991 when he owed $7.9 million in taxes.  He was convicted in 1994 of income tax evasion, served four years in prison, was released in 1998, and went back to his Arkansas-based ministry.

In addition to the criminal convictions, Alamo was found liable in a federal civil trial and ordered to pay $30 million to two men who were raised in the controversial Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. A jury found that those two men were beaten, starved, and denied education and found Alamo liable for conspiracy, outrage and battery.[7]

Another civil judgement was even more telling.  Seven women who were victims of physical and sexual abuse brought civil suits, resulting in a $525 million judgment, the largest in Arkansas history.[8]

Continue reading “Word Network Airs Dead Convicted Statutory Rapist Tony Alamo and Other Ex-Cons, Jim Whittington, and WV Grant”

The Conspicuous Lack of Congressional and IRS Oversight

A loathsome, terrible lack of Congressional and IRS oversight of televangelists and religious organizations exposes the huge need for new laws to prevent abuses of the public trust.

“No church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit.” Mark Twain

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, died on April 21, 1910, and yet his comment is even more appropriate now.

Huge amounts of church property here in the U.S. are not taxed. Aside from places of worship, churches, synagogues, and mosques also often provide property-tax exempt homes for their pastors, rabbis, and imams. In December 2021, the Houston Chronicle published an article we helped with exposing many church parsonages worth over a million dollars (our own article here).

In addition to extravagant church parsonages, religious non-profit laws allow for unhindered money laundering of church funds, obscenely huge tax-exempt housing allowances, loosely regulated bulk-cash smuggling out of the U.S., multi-million-dollar yearly salaries, and ministry-owned private jets used for personal vacations. And the list goes on. Read our “Dark Money” article for numerous examples.

Church, synagogue, and mosque income is generally tax-free. Though churches are supposed to report unrelated business income, there are many exclusions and deductions allowed. For example, Trinity Church in New York City owns more than six billion dollars worth of real-estate but does not disclose rental income by filing a form 990T. This is legal, believe it or not.

Continue reading “The Conspicuous Lack of Congressional and IRS Oversight”

Dead Televangelist Rapist Haunts Word Network Viewers

Trinity Foundation doesn’t normally report on the more salacious side of televangelism, be it Christianity, pseudo-Christianity, or Islam for that matter.  There is more than enough corruption stemming from dark money swishing around in religious organizations (see our “Dark Money…” article). We urge donors to follow the money, but when that’s not possible, follow the scandal.

A huge amount of sexual abuse and sex-trafficking is flying under the radar shielded by government agencies that fail to provide adequate oversight, abusive non-disclosure agreements and threats to fire employees that speak out, and by other means.

Church leaders operating with dictatorial powers, and not in humility, pressure followers for sexual favors. Consider the following examples:

Tony Alamo

Susan and Tony Alamo, PHOTO: GILBERT B. WEINGOURT/ZUMA PRESS/, From a Wall Street Journal article titled “‘Ministry of Evil: The Twisted Cult of Tony Alamo’ Review: Hell on Earth” by Dorothy Rabinowitz

Some televangelists never seem to go away, even after their death.  The late convicted serial statutory rapist and tax evader Tony Alamo is back on television here in the U.S. on media owner Kevin Adell’s religious TV channel “Word Network Church” up to four times weekly.

Alamo passed away on May 2, 2017, while in federal custody.

In 2009, Alamo began serving a 175-year prison sentence in Tucson after being convicted on 10 counts of sex trafficking minors—transporting underage girls across state lines for sex.

A little background:  Though many celebrities such as Johnny Cash, Black Sabbath, and the cast of TV’s Dallas wore jackets purchased from his Nashville country and western clothing store, his organization, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, was widely regarded as a cult.

His followers worked in Alamo’s many businesses for almost nothing aside from the food they ate.  In 1982 Alamo, who was married at least six times, held a vigil over his wife Susan’s dead body for months, hoping to resurrect her from the dead.

In 1976, the US Department of Labor brought charges against Alamo for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  He lost the suit and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 and the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of his church retroactively for a prior 4-year period.

However, Alamo’s lawyers fought the IRS ruling in the courts for seven years until 1992 when Special Trial Judge Larry L. Nameroff ruled that the organization during the period in question was essentially “operated for Tony’s and Susan’s private benefit.” From 1994 to 1998, Alamo served four years in prison for income-tax evasion. He later claimed he was imprisoned for preaching the gospel.

So now, the creepy dead guy is back… on a creepy religious TV network!!

Word Network Church—Kevin Adell’s purported “Christian” TV network has faced its own legal troubles. Its tax-exemption was revoked by the IRS in March 2015 retroactive to 2007.  Adell was paid an average yearly salary of $5.4 million from 2008 to 2011. When the TV network realized it was in trouble in 2013, they created a backup plan that went into effect as soon as the revocation took effect—they became a church… Church of the Word, a/k/a Word Network Church—the perfect vehicle to hide its profit motives.

Naasón Joaquín García

L.A. Times photo, from article titled “From An L.A. Prison Phone, La Luz Del Mundo Megachurch Leader Addresses Followers in MexicoBy Summer Lin and Libor Jany 

Convicted child-molester Naasón Joaquín García (N.J.G.) still leads the multi-million-member Mexico-based La Luz Del Mundo (LLDM) church from within prison walls here in the U.S.  N.J.G is believed to be the “Elect” one to connect church members to God.  He is facing sixteen more years in prison and a possibility of more federal charges—read our March article here

The U.S. is home to many dozens and perhaps hundreds of LLDM churches, with 35 in Texas alone.

Continue reading “Dead Televangelist Rapist Haunts Word Network Viewers”

Convicted Child Molester Still ‘Enthroned’ by Millions of Faithful Churchgoers

(Photo: Before his imprisonment for sex crimes, Naasón Joaquín García preached to large audiences in the United States, Mexico and in Central America.)

By Pete Evans, with Luís Treviño

A moment in time: A warm Sunday morning, spring, 2019. 

We (Luis and Pete) go to a Dallas church and realize it’s far from your “normal” sanctuary.  We are ushered into a temple and amidst the expensive architecture—probably worth millions, we immediately notice a gilded, velvet-covered throne front and center-stage, raised up several steps as if it were a true king’s throne.  On the throne are emblazoned the initials—not of Jesus Christ as one might expect—but of N. J. G., Naasón Joaquín García, the 3rd generation “anointed apostle” of the world-wide La Luz Del Mundo (LLDM—“Light of the World”) church organization.

(Photo: La Luz Del Mundo in Dallas after worship has ended.)

Little did we know at the time, that this so-called apostle (of apostasy) was already under investigation by various law-enforcement agencies in the United States for sex-trafficking, child molestation, psychological torture, statutory rape, child pornography, forcible oral copulation of a minor, control by manipulation, etc., etc.  Just a few weeks before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges, Naasón Joaquín García was arrested when he stepped off his own private jet in Los Angeles.[1]

As obvious newcomers, including one non-Latino, we are intercepted and given special treatment and placed on a back row of wooden pews.  Friendly Hispanic ushers encourage us to use our printed bulletins, reading and singing along with the apparently poor but well-dressed and probably hard-working congregation.  The women are dressed modestly in white, wearing long skirts and transparent headdresses of different colors, and the men are dressed in formal business attire, wearing coats and ties.

The sermon and singing appear to lead to a climatic central point of the service when, row-by-row, under direction from the ushers, every single member of the congregation—except us two visitors—begins to form two single-file lines, one section for women and another for men, and pass in front of the throne depositing their tithes and offerings and returning to their seats.  We were not forced to do so.

Continue reading “Convicted Child Molester Still ‘Enthroned’ by Millions of Faithful Churchgoers”