http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/02/17/crouch-granddaughter-not-backing-down/149135/
We told you last week that the granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch has accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.
The charges were leveled in a federal lawsuit filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper against her former lawyers, who also do legal work for Trinity. One of those lawyers said her charges were “outright fiction and wholly without merit;” and an attorney for Trinity said it’s actually Koper who committed financial misdeeds at TBN, and she’s trying to divert attention by filing this suit (more on that below).
On the day we first reported this story, Paul Crouch and his son Matt were having a live chat on TBN’s “Behind the Scenes.” Paul Crouch said, “God help anyone who would try to get in the way of TBN, which was God’s plan. … I have attended the funerals of at least two people who tried.”
Koper, however, does not appear to be backing down.
Her attorney, Tymothy MacLeod, said that she has filed reports with the Orange County District Attorney’s office, the police, and the California State Bar detailing her accusations. “We have engaged accounting and audit consultants who inform us that Ms. Koper’s report to IRS investigators should be ready for submission this upcoming week,” he told us by email.
The attorneys Koper is suing, Davert & Loe, sued Koper — their client — while they were representing her, her suit says. They charged Koper and her husband with myriad financial improprieties, but that suit was dismissed last month.
Davert & Loe have engaged legal counsel through their malpractice insurance carrier to fight Koper’s suit, MacLeod said.
“We are uncertain what kind of defense the Davert & Loe Lawyers expect to present in this case,” MacLeod told us my email. “Secretly suing your own client while representing her as counsel of record in ongoing litigation, let alone giving her legal advice concerning the subject matter of the adverse lawsuit you have secretly filed, is what we call a ‘per se’ violation of professional responsibilities. We hope that this open and shut case of legal malpractice will be quickly resolved, so we can focus more intently on the larger issues here: namely Ms. Koper’s reported allegations of unlawful distributions by the directors TBN, one of the largest tax-exempt religious nonprofits in the nation.”
We asked Davert & Loe for comment, and heard back from Colby M. May, an attorney for Trinity Christian Center and International Christian Broadcasters, Inc. (Trinity does business as TBN.)
May stressed that Koper’s suit is against her attorneys, not against Trinity or TBN.
“(B)ecause you continue to report the false assertion made by Ms. Koper that Trinity’s directors have ‘diverted’ charitable assets, I am advising you of the following: (1) Ms. Koper has admitted several times to having embezzled and misappropriated money; (2) Ms. Koper’s (and her husband’s) bad conduct and activities were reported some months ago to the IRS and all required returns have been submitted; (3) in recognition of her misconduct and bad acts, Ms. Koper has made partial restitution, it was only after she and her husband fled to New York that these efforts ceased; (4) Ms. Koper’s suit against Davert & Loe, and her outrageous, false, and unsubstantiated assertions about TBN made in that suit, are a vain attempt to divert attention from her embezzlement and misconduct; and (5) at no time have any charitable assets of Trinity or ICB been ‘diverted’ to any director, period.”
And contrary to MacLeod’s statement, Koper’s suit does not present any “larger issues,” May said.
To that, Koper’s attorney MacLeod responded, “Mr. May is throwing stones inside a crystal cathedral. Ms. Koper has done the right thing by coming forward.”
Trinity Christian Center is a nonprofit in the eyes of Uncle Sam, which means it doesn’t pay taxes on its income. It reported revenue of $175.6 million, expenses of $193.7 million, and net assets of $827.6 million at the end of 2010, according to its tax returns. Its highest-paid officer was Paul Crouch, with compensation of $400,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment