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”

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 Mexico” By 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”

(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 3^rd 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”

Accra, Ghana; last week, 1/18/2023

Various incarnations of Ponzi schemes are not unique to America or guys like Bernie Madoff.  Many experts have told Trinity Foundation that there is more money stolen in the name of God than any other way.

After having been found guilty of 173 counts of conspiracy to commit a crime and defrauding by false pretenses, Reverend Edward Buabeng, a Ghanian pastor and overseer of Liberty Vineyard International Ministries, was sentenced to a total of 519 years—consisting mostly of 8-year terms to be served simultaneously.

The case came to its conclusion after a three-year trial, in which 12 witnesses from over 100 defrauded victims were called to testify against the accused persons.

The main complainants, John and Brenda, were promised a 40% rate of return every three months and invested an equivalent amount of US $13,000 (roughly ₵161,403.02 in Ghanian Cedi currency) into the convict’s company, Career Link Marketers Company Limited.  The legal process began when the couple were unable to collect any money back from the pastor and reported Rev. Buabeng to the police.

Overall, Reverend Buabeng received the sum of GH₵ 2 million according to one article (as of this article $162,601.60 US dollars).  He didn’t deny the allegations against him and initially told police he would refund the money.  Yet he reportedly went into hiding after failing to return the money and was eventually re-arrested, leading to his trial.

The old cliché attributed to Michael Douglas still stands—” If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.”

This article relied on the following three African news sources: Melanin News, How Africa News and Ghana Web.

By Pete Evans and Barry Bowen

Trinity Foundation President Pete Evans delivered the following speech during the Corruption and Impunity in God’s Name forum at the International Anti-Corruption Conference 2022 held today in Washington, D.C. The conference is a project of Transparency International which is non-profit advocating for financial transparency on a global scale.

Thanks for your introduction Hazel, I’m Pete Evans, president of Trinity Foundation in Dallas, Texas and we’ve been investigating and exposing religious fraud and excess for over 3 decades now. I’ve been a licensed private investigator for most of that time and have worked undercover for months at a time in religious organizations on 3 occasions.  We regularly provide information to journalists and governmental agencies such as the exempt organization division of the IRS.

BUT, there is a veil of financial secrecy that shrouds and protects religious organizations.

Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, and other religious entities in America do not have to report any financial information either to the IRS, the public, or their own congregations.  This is known as “church status” and their financial disclosure is only voluntary.

We’ve seen this veil of secrecy lead to massive waste and extravagance, money laundering, bulk-cash smuggling, a tremendous indifference to the poor and downtrodden, and even rape, pedophilia, or sex-trafficking by televangelists, pastors, priests, and other church leaders—all in the name of God.

In 2007, cumulative reports from Trinity Foundation spurred Senator Charles Grassley of the US Senate Finance Committee to begin investigating religious fraud and self-dealing by requesting financial records and threatening numerous subpoenas to six prominent media ministries.

The threat of public testimony into abuses of the tax code before the senate scared the televangelists and heads of religious denominations.

So what became of the inquiry?  The Senate probe caused a momentary spike in awareness but was largely ignored by the US media and the investigation eventually went nowhere.

One of several reasons for the Senate’s failure to act was that the televangelists being investigated combined their resources to hire lawyers, lobbyists, and social media experts.

For publicity purposes, the suspected media ministries created a website that claimed religious persecution.  Of course, that was never the issue, it was always only about the misuse and extravagant waste of donor money.

What will it take to bring a wake-up call for transparency to religious organizations?

In 2008, Trent Huddleston, a former accountant at Oral Roberts University, America’s university of choice for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians, sued the university for discharging him “after fifteen months of intimidation and harassment.”

Huddleston alleged that university officials ordered him “to cook the books.” Buried on page 4 of the lawsuit was the most serious allegation: more than $1 billion US dollars flowed annually through an unrestricted account.

That should have spurred on an army of investigative reporters to follow the money. But nothing came of it. Aside from a couple of articles at the Tulsa World newspaper, journalists failed to explore the scandal.

Buried in government documents, inaccessible to journalists, there may exist Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARS) to verify allegations of money laundering at Oral Roberts University and prominent Christian media ministries.

Financial institutions are required to file Currency Transaction Reports when a person deposits or withdraws $10,000 or more in cash. When individuals attempt to avoid reporting requirements by making multiple deposits or withdrawals in a short amount of time, often called “structuring,” financial institutions are required to file these Suspicious Activity Reports (or SARS).

Unfortunately for investigative reporters and private investigators the Bank Secrecy Act prohibits the release of these reports to the public.

Additional allegations of massive money laundering involving religious organizations have surfaced with little media attention.

On May 3, 2000, the United States was preparing for a possible indictment of televangelist Benny Hinn for money laundering when the government’s main witness died of a suspicious heart attack.

Benny Hinn Ministries obtained a protective order to prevent disclosure of critical information.

But sometimes there are legal ways to obtain the truth. A Freedom of Information Act Request (or FOIA request) to the FBI revealed that Hinn’s former Chief Financial Officer Gene Polino allegedly embezzled $400,000 per week at one point.

One ideal way to smuggle dark money is via private aircraft, by boat, or similar means.  It’s typically called Bulk-Cash-Smuggling which Title 31 U.S.C. § 5332 “makes it a crime to smuggle or attempt to smuggle more than $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments into or out of the United States, with intent to evade U.S. currency reporting laws” (Also, see Title 31 U.S.C. §§ 5316 and 5317).

Trinity Foundation tracks televangelist jets daily with our Pastor Planes social media accounts (Instagram and Twitter). We’ve observed flights to the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Nevis, and other well-known tax haven nations over the years.

One of our informants has a nickname for televangelist jets—he calls them “laundry tubes.”  The televangelist he worked for smuggled stacks of cash from country to country and then back to the US on his jet—tons of money and jewels.  When offerings were taken in other countries, this particular televangelist would personally gather some of the money and the best of the jewelry to keep for himself.

On one occasion, the cash on this jet was stacked to the ceiling of the aircraft.  On another occasion, this particular televangelist smuggled a bunch of valuable red rubies from the offering plate out of Russia on his jet and our informant was detained and questioned by Russian authorities for three days about the rubies.

Another televangelist’s jet was reportedly used for bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the country illegally and on one occasion gunrunning of machine guns.

In the 1990s, a DEA informant reported a pallet stacked with cash in a Mexican airport destined for Haiti.  The cash was thinly covered by televangelist Robert Tilton’s brochures.

In 2015, our small organization expanded our investigations abroad.

Shortly prior to the COVID Pandemic, Trinity Foundation reported bulk cash smuggling to the FBI by one large multi-national church with hundreds of church locations in the Western Hemisphere funneling money overseas, out of the US.

On multiple occasions IRS officials have acknowledged the dark money problem in churches. In 2005, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson sent a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley claiming because churches were not required to file an informational return, “we have little ability to monitor their operations against diversion of assets.”

In recent years, some of America’s largest religious non-profit institutions have been reclassified as churches to avoid reporting requirements.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Gospel for Asia and CRU (formerly named Campus Crusade for Christ) no longer file a Form 990 which discloses compensation for ministry executives.

Back to Senator Grassley’s already weakened 2007 inquiry, in 2011 Grassley requested the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, known as ECFA for short, to establish a commission to study and offer solutions to abused tax code loopholes.

The ECFA requires its members to be financially transparent, but in practice, looks the other way and rarely enforces its requirements.

In this case, the ECFA commission became a textbook example of regulatory capture­­ (also called agency capture or state capture) whereby the organizations to be regulated take control of the process. Some CPAs and attorneys of the same six ministries under threat of subpoena were appointed to the ECFA task force, like foxes guarding the henhouse.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media never reported on the lobbying efforts that were taking place behind the scenes. Televangelist Benny Hinn would later tell his TV audience that he spent $5 million fighting the inquiry.

Hinn hired two former IRS Commissioners, Larry Gibbs and Fred Goldberg, to represent him during the inquiry.

Invariably, these unreported church funds make their way into the political process. Dark money buys influence.

Some televangelists also use church and ministry-owned jets to travel to political rallies and religious events with political campaigning overtones.

Last month, Kenneth Copeland flew on his church-owned jet to West Palm Beach, Florida to join Trump’s entourage in Trump’s jet flying to Pennsylvania where Copeland prayed at a campaign rally on behalf of Senate candidate Dr. Oz.

Should these aircraft receive a tax-exemption? The IRS needs to investigate and provide guidance on inappropriate uses of non-commercial aircraft.

Ministry’s dark money even reaches the politicians sometimes. According to one of our informants, a non-profit religious TV network would give money to employees to illegally donate to politicians.

So what can be done about the problems of church and ministry financial abuses?

Here’s a multi-prong approach necessary to address the growing decline of financial transparency and the increase of dark money in religious institutions.

1. Increase financial transparency in religious institutions.
2. Amend laws to provide greater access to financial data such as SARS.
3. Educate the public regarding donor responsibility.

Churches and ministries must be required to file a Form 990 which discloses total revenue, total expenses and the compensation of executives.

Congress should amend both the 1974 Privacy Act and Bank Secrecy Act to allow for the release of information in the public interest.  For example, both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations should be required to submit to increased scrutiny by the public—these are not private persons, they are man-made entities.

Additionally, non-profit companies should not be allowed to form shell companies, limited liability companies, or shadow companies.

Allow journalists to obtain Currency Transaction Reports and Suspicious Activity Reports by filing FOIA requests.

Law enforcement and regulatory agencies like the IRS should provide status reports to whistleblowers. Currently, when Trinity Foundation submits a complaint to the IRS, the IRS is prohibited from revealing if an audit or criminal investigation has been launched or closed.

In the rare cases the IRS revokes the tax-exempt status of a non-profit, the IRS sends the organization a revocation letter which is confidential. These letters should be available via FOIA requests so journalists and donors can see if the organization used donations to pay any penalties.

The United States Congress could also take a cue from Australia’s external standards for non-profit organizations. Australia requires non-profit organizations, including churches, to disclose how funds are spent when they are used in foreign countries.

After Hillsong Church’s Australian leadership was informed that sending cash to Romanian individuals would need to be reported, the church sent them money anyway from Hillsong Global LLC, an American church-related company. Hillsong Global does not file a 990 which would disclose this kind of transaction.

There is complete opacity, the system is broken down, it’s not working!

With these legal changes, greater transparency would reduce the ability of churches and ministries to launder money and illegally buy political influence. The time to act is now.

If anyone wants to talk about this, I’ve got lots of examples!

(End of Speech)

APPENDIX

Here are some recent examples:

In 2019, a private jet belonging to the international leader of the Philippine-based The Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church, Apollo Quiboloy was detained for bulk-cash smuggling.  His employee, Felina Salinas, was caught with a suitcase containing more than $300,000 in Hawaii. Apollo Quiboloy, a preacher that promotes himself on social media as “the Appointed Son of God” claims over 6 million followers in over 200 countries.

In November 2021, Quiboloy was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury and is on the FBI’s most wanted list for Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud and Coercion, and Sex Trafficking of Children by Force, Fraud, and Coercion; Conspiracy; and Bulk Cash Smuggling.

We used to call televangelist Benny Hinn the “Teflon televangelist” because of his slippery avoidance of prosecution or tax revocation by the US government.  His ministry claims to be a church and has the secretive “church status”.

However, Brazilian televangelist Edir Macedo, may be the greasiest, slimiest tele-preacher.  Macedo, perhaps the wealthiest televangelist in the world, was arrested in August 2009 in Brazil for siphoning billions of dollars from mostly poor followers to buy TV stations, businesses, and jewelry for himself.    He was charged along with nine others for massive money laundering through fake companies but was never convicted.

Macedo’s church (but not Macedo) was accused again of money laundering in 2020.  According to Brazilian news site Poder360, in one fiscal year, May 2018 to April 2019, at least 5.9 billion reals–approximately $1.093 billion in US dollars–moved through church bank accounts in a questionable manner.

Malawi televangelist Shepherd Bushiri, who claims to walk on air, was arrested two years ago in South Africa for money laundering the equivalent of over $6 million dollars.  Bushiri skipped bail and fled to Malawi where he enjoys protection from the government. Pretoria, South Africa’s News 24 has reported the South African government faces a January 25, 2023 deadline to complete its investigation. Then  a final extradition hearing should be held.

 

More on Hinn

Hinn’s former attorney Larry Gibbs works for Miller & Chevalier, a law firm that specializes in “thwarting investigations.” It’s no joke, the law firm website says, “Given the stigma of being accused of criminal activity, clients seek our early and rapid intervention to thwart investigations before they become public.”

Hinn’s other former attorney Fred Goldberg was the IRS Commissioner that granted the Church of Scientology its tax exemption.

It’s likely that Gibbs or Goldberg met with Senator Grassley on Hinn’s behalf, but neither registered as lobbyists.

Hinn’s Ministry with its church status files no Form 990 and does not disclose how much money the organization spends on legal expenses.

Jim Bakker

While not a recent example, many people have forgotten that as televangelist Jim Bakker’s media empire collapsed, journalists reported the existence of two sets of books: The fictitious numbers and the real numbers.

More on Politics:

In 2020, TV preacher Robert Morris flew to Washington, D.C. in Daystar Television’s Gulfstream G5 jet for the National & Global Day of Prayer and repentance featuring a prayer proclamation from Donald Trump.

Daystar’s jet and televangelist James Robison’s jet traveled to California where Robison and Daystar president Marcus Lamb (and family) attended a political fundraising event at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point.

(Photo:  Pete Evans, President of Trinity Foundation)

How much is embezzled by “Christian” religious leaders? Researchers at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, which study this problem, produce an annual estimate which is published each year in the January issue of the International Bulletin of Mission Research.

This year’s estimate: $59 billion in ecclesiastical crimes. Meanwhile, $52 billion will be spent on world missions.

Let those numbers sink it. More money is stolen by religious leaders than is spent on world missions.

Is there a way to dramatically reduce this crime? Our non-profit foundation has tried to avoid suggesting any national legislation over the years, but that has to change.

Continue reading “A Word from our Foundation’s President”

(Photo: St Matthews Churches includes inexpensive items such as this tablecloth in mailouts to create a sense of obligation for the letter recipient to donate.)

How a Man You’ve Never Heard of Created the Unholy Grail of Televangelist Fund-Raising Letters and Keeps the Cash Rolling In Over 60 Years Later.

By Mike Renfro and Pete Evans

You’d certainly be forgiven if the name Gene Ewing doesn’t ring a bell. What this name does ring is the cash register. Gene Ewing is the behind-the-scenes J.R. Ewing of TV Preachers and their cash gushers. It’s a show that’s been going on for over six decades—mostly at the expense of the poor, elderly, sick and hurting.

His stock-in-trade for most of his career has been scripture-draped fund-raising appeals, replete with highly personalized pitches and promises for renewed health and prosperity. Predictably, it’s Ewing and his partners that have been the ones prospering. And if IRS records before they “went dark” and re-branded as a church are any indication at all, they’ve been prospering to the tune of millions of dollars annually—all pouring into a lawyer’s P.O. box, overflowing with cash, checks and cynically-abused dreams.

You can google him but you’ll struggle to find a photo of him from this side of the 1960s. Perhaps the only thing more mysterious and elusive than the man is the church from which his appeals emanate. And unlike many of his cohorts in televangelism such as Jim Baker and W.V. Grant, who both spent time in prison, Ewing’s always managed to avoid both the law and the limelight.

James Eugene “Gene” Ewing, Milton Ray McElrath (Ray), and until recently, their now-deceased lawyer J.C. Joyce have been the three main individuals consistently running what is now Saint Matthews Churches under many different names.  How did this organization evolve into the money machine it is today?

Continue reading “James Eugene Ewing, Founder of St. Matthews Churches: the Religious Direct Mail Monster”