By Barry Bowen and Pete Evans
During a golf game about six years ago in north Texas, televangelist Marcus Lamb said to a couple of golfers, “That man ain’t dead yet!”
The surrounding golfers were disturbed by the comment because it sounded like Lamb wanted the man to die and the golfers knew that Lamb’s ministry held a life insurance policy for the man Lamb was talking about.
Lamb’s non-profit organization Word of God Fellowship, better known by the trade name Daystar Television Network, has generated millions of dollars in profits from investing in life insurance settlements.
Wikipedia explains: “A third party becomes the new owner of the policy, pays the monthly premiums, and receives the full benefit of the policy when the insured dies.”
In 2018, Daystar sued Eduardo Espinosa, a trustee of Life Partners Holdings, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas over a $10 million life insurance policy Daystar claimed to fully own.
In 2019, the court ruled “the relief requested should be granted.”
One of Trinity Foundation’s confidential informants believes that Daystar purchased its Gulfstream G-V jet in May 2020 with profits from the insurance settlements.
Inside Edition investigated Daystar’s jet acquisition upon learning the ministry purchased the jet two weeks after receiving a $3.9 million Paycheck Protection Program loan (PPP).
Congress created the PPP to provide forgivable loans to small businesses and small non-profit organizations to retain employees during Covid.
Inside Edition reported, “Lamb says Daystar was able to buy the jet with proceeds from an investment and the sale of its old jet, not by using government PPP money.”
After Inside Edition contacted Daystar for comment about the PPP loan, Daystar paid the loan back with interest.
The Inside Edition investigative report from 2020 featured a clip of Marcus Lamb speaking to a large audience: “Daystar was recently appraised at over $1 billion.”
In 2012, Daystar attempted to permanently seal its financial records in a court case. Trinity Foundation successfully intervened in Dallas County Court. The unsealed documents revealed Daystar and its related organizations had $227 million in total assets, $225 million in net assets as of 2010. In one decade, the network’s total assets tripled.
Investigating Daystar’s Finances from Third Party Sources
The finances of Daystar, America’s second largest religious TV network, are cloaked in secrecy. Daystar does not file a Form 990 with the IRS or provide its donors with annual consolidated audited financial statements showing how ministry funds are spent.
To create an alternative financial overview for Daystar, Trinity Foundation has obtained court filings, conducted property searches, communicated with alleged victims of investments gone bad and searched data mining/market research company databases.
Total Revenue
Someone in Daystar’s financial department or upper-level management appears to have disclosed Daystar’s total revenue to RocketReach, a marketing research company specializing in the collection of email and phone contacts for business professionals.
RocketReach reports that Daystar has 277 employees and generates $114.4 million in revenue yearly.
For comparison, RocketReach reports that Trinity Broadcasting Network has 545 employees and generates $180.4 million while The Word Network produces $9.6 million with 22 employees.
Most of Daystar’s revenue comes from three sources: selling of TV airtime to churches and ministries, donations made directly to the ministry and investments.
Selling of TV Airtime
Daystar broadcasts about 42 hours weekly of its own original programming on its English language channel in the United States. These shows include Joni Table Talk, Marcus Lamb, MinistryNow, Gospel Music Showcase and Healing Time with Dr. Doug Weiss.
The network is probably paying or bartering time with film and TV producers to broadcast movies and a small children’s programming block on Saturdays.
If Daystar sells 100 hours of airtime per week at an average price of $10,000 per hour or $5,000 per half-hour time slot, the network will generate more than $50 million annually in broadcast revenue.
While Daystar doesn’t share how much it charges each ministry to air their programs, a few Form 990s of ministries on Daystar disclose airtime expenses.
In 2023, Daystar charged Hal Lindsey Website Ministries $381,519 to broadcast its weekly 30-minute TV program on Sunday evenings at 10 pm central time.
(Screenshot: Hal Lindsey Website Ministries 2023 Form 990)
Donation Income
An unsealed consolidated financial statement revealed that Daystar generated $31 million in donations in 2010.
Daystar solicits funds during its Heart for the World telethon which is broadcast three times a year and in 2023 and 2024 raised money for Israeli military.
Investment Income
In addition to investing in life settlements, Daystar has invested in cryptocurrency, made loans to churches and family members, and acquired intellectual property of a tech company.
Daystar provided a $20 million loan to help Gateway Church construct its Southlake, Texas, campus.
WPXS, Inc., a related organization of Daystar and the call letters of its Illinois TV station, provided loans to the families of Joni Lamb’s two daughters Rachel Brown and Rebecca Weiss in the amounts of $550,000 and $780,000.
YR Ranch, LLC, another related organization of Daystar, is currently attempting to sell $4 million of property in east Texas.
Some of Daystar’s investments have performed poorly.
Daystar invested $25 million crypto investment through Silvergate Bank which closed after the cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading collapsed. MinistryWatch reported that after the closure of Silvergate Bank, “Word of God is demanding Silvergate return its deposit in full.”
Daystar is the apparent owner of Power It Perfect (PIP) according to Texas secretary of state records. Power It Perfect, originally incorporated in Nevada but now registered in Texas, issued one million shares of common stock.
In September 2024, two women who apparently lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in PIP contacted Trinity Foundation when they could no longer get any answers from the company’s creator Pastor Lloyd Bustard nor it’s apparent new owner Word of God Fellowship.
Bustard told one woman, investor number 112 who lost $42,000, “You made the decision on your own to invest, just like I did. I invested a lot more money than you. Have a good day.” After getting nowhere with Bustard, these women have tried in vain to contact Daystar to find out any news about their investments.
The story goes something like this: A man in Pastor Lloyd Bustard’s congregation who “invented a chip that goes in a Cummins generator” was on his death bed. The man told Bustard he is the only person he could trust. After his death, Bustard became the sole owner of the patent.
The status of the Daystar affiliated company is unclear and raises questions. Is Daystar the current owner of PIP and the patent for the “chip” that goes in a Cummins generator?
Is Daystar another victim of a failed investment scheme as these women believe they have been? Why won’t Daystar respond to these women? Did Pastor Lloyd Bustard use his position of trust to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal benefit?
If so, this is commonly called religious affinity fraud, but Pastor Bustard has not been charged with any crime. The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA.org) may to be able to help investors.
Self-Dealing at Daystar
When the officer of a non-profit organization also operates a for-profit company and the two entities do business with each other, self-dealing occurs. However, it is not illegal unless the officer excessively profits off the non-profit organization.
Also, Daystar benefits from a tax code loophole because the excise tax penalty does not apply to public non-profit foundations.
In his attempt to unseal the Daystar financial records from a court case, Trinity Foundation’s attorney David Pyke presented a motion which stated, “Daystar entered into a contract with Joni Lamb Publications, L.L.C. to market her book in exchange for a share of profits. This is a contribution by Daystar to another entity and helps show how Daystar’s funds are being used, which is information the donating public has a right to know.”
Unrelated Business Income
Attorney David Pyke’s motion to unseal Daystar’s court documents was granted because the documents were improperly sealed, and Pyke was able to argue that Daystar’s practices were much like those of a for-profit company: “It squawks Church but waddles for-profit business.”
When a non-profit generates more than $1,000 from activities that have nothing to do with the organization’s mission, the non-profit may be required to file a Form 990-T with the IRS.
Employees and visitors to Daystar’s headquarters in Bedford, Texas, may purchase a meal at the Scratch Cafe & Shop. Daystar fails to report revenue from its café on a Form 990-T. When TBN operated a Bistro at its Costa Mesa, California, studio, TBN reported the revenue and losses to the IRS.
The tax code has created a distinction between passive and active investments.
Because of loopholes in the tax code income Daystar’s life settlement investments might not be subject to taxation.
Trinity Foundation has requested guidance from the IRS regarding Daystar’s life settlement investments and will disclose what it learns.
In November, Trinity Foundation submitted the following questions to Daystar but received no response
- Word of God Fellowship does not file a Form 990-T to disclose unrelated business income and does not file a Form 990 disclosing related organizations. What are the purposes of Davis & Hudson, LLC, WOGF, LLC, WPXS, Inc., and YR Ranch, LLC? Does money flow from any of these entities into Daystar?
- Word of God Fellowship filed a lawsuit which revealed it is purchasing life insurance policies as an investment. Due to the ministry’s use of a broker and actively seeking investment opportunities, why does Word of God Fellowship not file a Form 990-T to disclose this as unrelated business income?
- Is Joni personally buying life insurance policies along with Daystar?