TBN Family Feud Heats Up as TBN Fires Back Against Fraud Allegations

http://www.christianpost.com/news/tbn-family-feud-heats-up-as-network-fires-back-against-fraud-accusations-74645/

TBN Family Feud Heats Up as Network Fires Back Against Fraud Accusations

Christian TV Network Denies Allegations Made by Founders' Granddaughter; Bashes New York Times for Allegedly Skewing the Truth

• (Photo: TBN)
  
  
  TBN, the world's largest religious broadcaster, has launched a new competition in an attempt to find new shows for their digital networks. They have challenged all Christian producers to submit innovative projects.

By Luiza Oleszczuk , Christian Post Reporter

May 9, 2012|1:13 pm

The Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) said Tuesday that a civil lawsuit filed against it by the founders' granddaughter and the company's former finance director is "meritless and contrived," adding more arguments to what has become an epic scandal involving the largest Christian television network.

Brittany B. Koper, granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Janice Crouch and their company's former director of finance, has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that the network knew and kept quiet about broad financial inaccuracies benefiting its founders. Koper and her husband, Michael, who formerly managed sales of TBN airtime, allege that the network's directors have illegally taken advantage of more than $50 million in "charitable assets," while misleading the IRS and misappropriating millions of dollars of donations from Christians around the world.

The couple claim they were fired last September after Brittany Koper brought several suspected financial inaccuracies to her superiors. The Kopers also allege that TBN has violated its status as a nonprofit on multiple occasions. In an interview with The New York Times, Brittany Koper stated: "People have been conned by my grandparents."

Meanwhile, the network claims the Kopers were fired for stealing $1.3 million to buy real estate and cars and make family loans, and only came back with their own allegations later, in retaliation.
TBN National Spokesman Colby May reiterated Tuesday that the Kopers' accusations were "false claims."

"Far from being the innocent crusader seeking to bring correction to supposed financial impropriety she 'discovered' shortly after becoming TBN's finance director, Mrs. Koper concocted accusations against her former employer after she and her husband Michael Koper admitted that they had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ministry," May alleged in a statement Tuesday.

The network also accused Michael Koper of dishonesty in presenting himself as a U.S. Army veteran, which supposedly increased the directors' trust in him. That trust "was based in large part on his claim of heroic and life-threatening military service," TBN said in its statement.

"The disturbing reality, however, is that Mr. Koper never served in the military or as a Marine in Afghanistan. But his claims nonetheless helped him obtain a position of trust, and allowed him and Mrs. Koper to misappropriate ministry money to purchase a home along with an investment condo, 'lend' tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Koper's uncle, and even put Michael's own father on TBN's payroll for a non-existent job," May alleged.

The TBN spokesman claims the Kopers admitted to these and other mischiefs, such as creating a bank account in the company's name which they alone controlled, and "siphoning off over $175,000 in third-party payments to the ministry into that account."

"The Kopers subsequently offered their apologies, but when restitution and return of the monies became more difficult than they anticipated, they fled California for New York and threatened to create a public scandal to damage TBN," May said.

The network has also fired back against The New York Times article published on May 4, which presents TBN as a money-machine interested in garnering donations to buy the founding family luxury items, among other privileges. TBN denied the network orchestrated "sweetheart deals" with family-owned businesses, as alleged by the Times report. The "special luxury accommodations for pets" and "other extravagant perquisites" purchased for the network's founders, as reported by the Times' Erik Eckholm, were based on the Kopers' lawsuit, TBN claims.

"From housing to transportation to investments in TBN's extensive program library, every network expense has been successfully calculated (and accounted for) to add bottom-line value to the ministry's mission and purpose," May said Tuesday.

As the Times pointed out, the ministry's donations totaled $93 million in 2010, and the Crouches have not been transparent in how that money is being spent.

The "plain truth," May countered, is that "with 35 broadcast and production studios across the nation, scores of others around the world, and the necessity of non-stop travel by network executives, TBN has saved millions of dollars over the decades in airfare and lodging, and the financial value of its aircraft and real property has appreciated greatly."

"In fact, wise stewardship and accountability have been the key to TBN's success, and is why its viewers and supporting partners have continued helping fulfill its mission of broadcasting the Gospel around the world," the spokesman added. "TBN has always sought to maintain transparency in the stewardship of its finances."

This is why, even though churches are not required to do so, TBN, classified as a church, has voluntarily filed and released for public inspection an Annual Information Tax Return (IRS Form 990), he said. TBN also conducts two separate annual independent audits, one to assure compliance with IRS rules and a second focused on its internal financial accounting and operations.

May accused Eckholm of ignoring the information TBN provided him, adding that the ministries do not promote the "prosperity gospel," but have been supporting multiple denominations across the world, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and Messianic.

Meanwhile, Brittany Koper, stood by her allegations last week. She told The New York Times that TBN avoids probing questions from the IRS, which is made easy by the absence of outsiders on TBN's governing board -- currently consisting of Paul, Janice and Matthew Crouch, the founders' son and Brittany's uncle.

"My job as finance director was to find ways to label extravagant personal spending as ministry expenses," she reportedly said.

Koper is reportedly seeking at least $2.5 million in damages in the lawsuit, including over half a million dollars for what she and her husband allegedly returned to TBN after they were fired.
According to the Times report, no criminal charges were filed against the couple by TBN after their alleged theft.

Founded in 1973, TBN will be celebrating 40 years of operations next year. It is the world's largest Christian network, according to the ministry's website, which has grown to 16 global television networks distributed on 76 satellites. TBN offers "a wide variety of inspirational, religious, cultural, and educational programming for all ages." The network claims it has provided millions of dollars in time, money, and resources to support a wide variety of humanitarian, religious, and charitable efforts around the globe, including for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Indonesian tsunami, and the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, as well as aid and services to the homeless and needy.

"As I pointed out to (New York Times reporter) Mr. Eckholm, while some may have a different idea of what Christian ministry looks like, and while others may criticize TBN for its doctrines and beliefs or because of its unique style and look, one issue is not open to debate: After 40 years, TBN continues to succeed in its mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth," May said in the Tuesday statement.

NY Times Covers TBN v. (Granddaughter) Koper Case in re "Fraud Allegations"

A good article by NY Times on Baptacostalistic TBN loons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/us/tbn-fight-offers-glimpse-inside-lavish-tv-ministry.html?_r=2&smid=fb-share

Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry

Brian Blanco for The New York Times

The Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Fla., is part of the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s operations.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: May 4, 2012    

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — For 39 years, the Trinity Broadcasting Network has urged viewers to give generously and reap the Lord’s bounty in return.       

America's leading Hillbillies, Jan and Paul Crouch

The Gospel of Prosperity

The Gospel of Prosperity

Close Video

See More Videos »

Slide Show

A Religious TV Empire

DOCUMENT: Trinity Broadcasting Network: A Nonprofit Corporation’s Balance Sheet

Brian Blanco for The New York Times

A SIDE BUSINESS The theme park is run by Janice Crouch, a TBN founder. More Photos »

The prosperity gospel preached by Paul and Janice Crouch, who built a single station into the world’s largest Christian television network, has worked out well for them.

Mr. and Mrs. Crouch have his-and-her mansions one street apart in a gated community here, provided by the network using viewer donations and tax-free earnings. But Mrs. Crouch, 74, rarely sleeps in the $5.6 million house with tennis court and pool. She mostly lives in a large company house near Orlando, Fla., where she runs a side business, the Holy Land Experience theme park. Mr. Crouch, 78, has an adjacent home there too, but rarely visits. Its occupant is often a security guard who doubles as Mrs. Crouch’s chauffeur.

The twin sets of luxury homes only hint at the high living enjoyed by the Crouches, inspirational television personalities whose multitudes of stations and satellite signals reach millions of worshipers across the globe. Almost since they started in the 1970s, the couple have been criticized for secrecy about their use of donations, which totaled $93 million in 2010.

Now, after an upheaval with Shakespearean echoes, one son in this first family of televangelism has ousted the other to become the heir apparent. A granddaughter, who was in charge of TBN’s finances, has gone public with the most detailed allegations of financial improprieties yet, which TBN has denied, saying its practices were audited and legal.

The granddaughter, Brittany Koper, and her husband have been fired by the network, which accused them of stealing $1.3 million to buy real estate and cars and make family loans. “They’re just trying to divert attention from their own crimes,” said Colby May, a lawyer representing TBN. Janice and Paul Crouch declined requests for interviews.

In two pending lawsuits and in her first public interview, Ms. Koper described company-paid luxuries that she said appeared to violate the Internal Revenue Service’s ban on “excess compensation” by nonprofit organizations as well as possibly state and federal laws on false bookkeeping and self-dealing.

The lavish perquisites, corroborated by two other former TBN employees, include additional, often-vacant homes in Texas and on the former Conway Twitty estate in Tennessee, corporate jets valued at $8 million and $49 million each and thousand-dollar dinners with fine wines, paid with tax-exempt money.

In the lawsuits and interviews, Ms. Koper, 26, also charges that TBN has spent millions of dollars in sweetheart deals with a commercial film company owned until recently by a son of the Crouches, Matthew, including poorly monitored investments made after he joined the TBN board in 2007.

“My job as finance director was to find ways to label extravagant personal spending as ministry expenses,” Ms. Koper said. This is one way, she said, the company avoids probing questions from the I.R.S. She said that the absence of outsiders on TBN’s governing board — currently consisting of Paul, Janice and Matthew Crouch — had led to a serious lack of accountability for spending.

Ms. Koper and the two other former TBN employees also said that dozens of staff members, including Ms. Koper, chauffeurs, sound engineers and others had been ordained as ministers by TBN. This allowed the network to avoid paying Social Security taxes on their salaries and made it easier to justify providing family members with rent-free houses, sometimes called “parsonages,” she said.

The company did not always succeed. Last year, officials in Orange County, Fla., turned down TBN’s application to register the adjacent lakefront houses in Windermere as parsonages, saying they served no religious purpose, The Orlando Sentinel reported. The designation would have resulted in religious exemptions and saved TBN roughly $50,000 in taxes a year.

Ms. Koper said that the company run by Matthew Crouch, 50, who is her uncle, had received an estimated $50 million in TBN money over the years, with little oversight, to finance religious film projects and television shows. TBN recouped only a small fraction of its loans and investments, sometimes forgiving large sums in return for broadcast rights of limited value, she said.

She also questioned the justification for providing rent-free houses for Matthew, now a TBN vice president, and his wife, Laurie, and separate houses for their young-adult sons in Costa Mesa, Calif., including one that Ms. Koper said was remodeled at company expense with wall-mounted Transformer robot figures costing several thousand dollars, a putting green and an indoor basketball court.

Ms. Koper and her husband, Michael Koper, 28, who formerly managed sales of TBN airtime, said they were fired last September after writing memorandums to the elder Mr. Crouch about questionable spending. They showed a reporter for The New York Times what they said were copies of the memos.

“People have been conned by my grandparents,” Ms. Koper said.

But TBN said the pair made their charges only after the company confronted them with evidence of embezzlement.

TBN later filed and then dropped a civil lawsuit accusing the Kopers of fraud, and this week filed a new suit in a California court, repeating only a few of the original allegations. No criminal charges against the Kopers have been filed.

Paul and Jan Crouch, Founders of TBN and financial con artists, fleecing the weak, vulnerable, poor and illiterate bumpkins
who belittle books and learning, theology, doctrine, history, philosophy and education.  But, they "know how to count money!"

 

The Gospel of Prosperity

Close Video

See More Videos »

TBN religious empire...as big a as the Vatican?  You should see pictures of Jan and Paul's home (s).  We've documented that elsewhere

A Religious TV Empire

DOCUMENT: Trinity Broadcasting Network: A Nonprofit Corporation’s Balance Sheet

 

Mr. May, the lawyer, offered a broad defense of TBN and the Crouches. He said that TBN had indeed ordained hundreds of people who felt a true “ministerial call” and that performers at Holy Land Experience, for example, were “ministers playing roles.”

He said that all contracts with the film company that Matthew Crouch led until mid-2010, Gener8Xion Entertainment, had been at “arm’s length” and provided good value to TBN.

Mr. May added that TBN owned so many homes because traveling employees and guests used them. He said that the remodeled house, in the Lifestyles complex in Costa Mesa, was not occupied, but used as a set for youth television programs, with the Transformers serving as props. Matthew Crouch, through the company spokesman, declined an interview request. But Gilbert J. Luft, president of the Lifestyles Homeowners Association in Costa Mesa, said that the sons were familiar residents and that the association does not permit filming there.

Extolling TBN’s prominence and programs, Mr. May said the spending that some call opulent “is necessary to convey the ministry’s position of accomplishment.”

The Gospel of Prosperity

On the air, the Crouches combine uplifting talk with encouragement to give to the Lord, and so be repaid. This “prosperity gospel” is shared by several televangelists who appear on TBN. But many conventional Christian leaders regard it as a sham.

“Prosperity theology is a false theology,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Between its message and its reputation for high spending, Mr. Mohler said, “TBN has been a huge embarrassment to evangelical Christianity for decades.”

While TBN said it provided tens of millions of dollars’ worth of free advertising time to conventional charities like the Salvation Army and a few million dollars in some years for aid to disaster victims, it is forthright about its overriding purpose: “to spread the Gospel to the world” through its cable systems, satellite transmitters and, now, via computers and smartphones.

Janice Crouch, called “Mama” on the air, is known for her pink-tinged wigs, which look like huge swirls of cotton candy, and for talking emotionally about the Lord’s blessings. Mr. Crouch, or “Papa,” is relentlessly upbeat as he quotes flurries of Bible verses on signature programs like “Praise the Lord.”

Clearly, many viewers have heartfelt responses. In 2010, TBN received $93 million in tax-exempt donations, according to its tax report. The company also had $64 million in additional income from sales of airtime and $17 million in investment income that year.

It spent $194 million operating its far-flung network and investing in new programs. The company was in the red for the year, but could draw on its cushion of $325 million in cash and investments.

Rusty Leonard, an independent tax expert and the leader of Wall Watchers, a charity watchdog group that has long criticized TBN for financial secrecy, said televangelists often escape penalties for extravagant spending because the definition of taxable “excess benefits” is subjective, and authorities are reluctant to challenge religious groups.

Marcus S. Owens, a tax lawyer with Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, said that lavish spending by nonprofit organizations could raise red flags for tax officials. “The law says that any compensation must be reasonable, and the value of a house is part of that,” he said. “Dinner on the company every night could be an issue too.”

At the same time, Mr. Owens said, churches have considerable latitude under the First Amendment. Regarding the ordination of untrained workers, he said, “absent clear fraud, the government is not going to touch that.”

A TBN spokesman said executive salaries were recommended by independent consultants. In 2010, Mr. Crouch received $400,000 as president, Mrs. Crouch $365,000 as first vice president.

On the air, Mr. and Mrs. Crouch tell viewers that they have almost no personal assets. But that only underscores the problem, said Tymothy S. MacLeod, a lawyer for the Kopers. “It’s the tax-exempt company that is giving them this opulent lifestyle.”

The Gospel of Prosperity

Close Video

See More Videos »

Accounts of Extravagance

Relatives and former employees agreed that Paul and Janice Crouch seem to have deep spiritual feelings and believe they are doing the Lord’s work — a belief, according to a former employee, Troy Clements, that seemed to justify almost any extravagance.

Mr. Clements, a former executive at Holy Land Experience, said that when employees questioned decisions like remodeling the cafe three times in six weeks, Mrs. Crouch said, “No one has told me ‘no’ for 30 years, and you’re not going to start now.”

Mr. Clements, who was sales and then personnel director at Holy Land, said that he resigned in frustration in 2008 and that working for Mrs. Crouch had often been “surreal.”

In 2008 and 2009, as Mrs. Crouch began remodeling Holy Land Experience, she rented adjacent rooms in the deluxe Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando — one for herself and one for her two beloved Maltese dogs and clothes, according to Mr. Clements and Ms. Koper. Mrs. Crouch rented the rooms for close to two years, they said.

Ms. Crouch was seldom without her little white dogs, pushing them in a pink stroller and keeping a costly motor home, originally purchased to serve as an office, for two years as an air-conditioned sanctuary for her pets, the two former employees said.

In Newport Beach, according to Ms. Koper, the elder Mr. Crouch sometimes traveled in a chauffeured Bentley, which TBN says is used to ferry television guests in proper style.  

First-class “working dinners” are a way of life. In pending lawsuits, the Kopers say that Mr. Crouch, Mrs. Crouch and their son Matthew each ran up meal expenses of at least $300,000 per year. Mr. May, the TBN lawyer, said this was not accurate but did not offer other figures.

A Contentious Exit

When Brittany Koper and her husband decided to join TBN in 2007 after college, they were tempted by the generous perquisites, they admit. But they said that as Mr. Koper completed law school on the side, and Ms. Koper her M.B.A., they began to feel uneasy and moved out of their company house.

Nonetheless, they did borrow company money for their down payment on a private home and the purchase of a condominium, and gave Mr. Koper’s uncle a company loan of $65,000, among other acts that Mr. May called thefts. The Kopers said the loans were authorized in writing by the elder Mr. Crouch, with clear repayment terms.

TBN says Mr. Crouch’s signature was forged. Mr. May showed a reporter letters from the fall in which Ms. Koper apologized for lying and lending herself company money.

Ms. Koper said that she had never admitted to breaking the law. She said she was pressured by TBN lawyers to show “Christian contrition” and to hand over company property and repay their loans.

In October the Kopers moved to New York. “We just wanted a fresh start,” Ms. Koper recalled.

Her father, Paul Crouch Jr., Matthew’s older brother, was also forced off the staff and quit the board.

He declined to be interviewed, but he wrote in an e-mail, “Getting caught in the middle of disputes involving my daughter, brother and parents is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to endure.”

As lawsuits and countersuits swirl, the Kopers are living in the basement of his father’s modest house in Elmont, on Long Island.

Mr. Crouch and an assistant, Matthew and his family, and two pilots are nearing the end of a six-week world tour in the larger company jet, visiting affiliates, taping programs and scouting new territory for evangelism in Rome, Dubai, Israel, Hong Kong and Hawaii.

“Others may do things differently, and may criticize TBN for how it operates, its look, its doctrine and belief,” Mr. May said. “But what is absolutely clear is that TBN, with God’s grace, has succeeded where most others have failed.”

Daily Mail: Private jets, 13 mansions and a $100,000 mobile home just for the dogs: Televangelists 'defrauded tens of million of dollars from Christian network'

A piece of good news emerges in the story below, to wit:  "The lawsuit attention comes at a bad time for TBN, which has seen viewer donations drop
steeply."


Private jets, 13 mansions and a $100,000 mobile home just for the dogs: Televangelists 'defrauded tens of million of dollars from Christian network'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119493/Private-jets-13-mansions-100-000-mobile-home-just-dogs-Televangelists-defrauded-tens-million-dollars-Christian-network.html#ixzz1q9gKANQd


Two former employees of the world's largest Christian television channel Trinity Broadcasting Network are accusing the non-profit of spending $50 million of its funding on extravagant personal expenses.

Among purchases, the network founded by Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, is accused of misappropriating its 'charitable assets' toward a $50 million jet, 13 mansions and a $100,000-mobile home for Mrs Crouch's dogs.

Their granddaughter, Brittany Koper, 26, recently filed her allegations in court after a brief appointment as the network's chief finance director in July.

Accused: Brittany Koper, center, recently filed a suit accusing the Trinity Broadcasting Network, its founders Janice Crouch (left) and Paul Crouch Sr (far right), in squandering $50 million of its funding

She claims she was fired in September after discovering the 'illegal financial schemes' according to the lawsuit obtained by the Los Angeles Times, and consequently reporting them to Mr Crouch.

Her lawsuit follows a second by another former employee and Koper in-law, Joseph McVeigh, the uncle of Mrs Koper's husband, Michael Koper, who detailed the opulent spending by the Christian network.

According to Mr McVeigh's accounts filed in his lawsuit, the network used their collections for side-by-side mansions in Florida, as well as in Texas, Tennessee and California.

The network's $50 million luxury jet was purchased through a sham loan while Mrs Crouch's personal jet, a Hawker, totalled $8 million, according to his suit.

Dog house: Mrs Koper claims she was fired after reporting financial irregularities in their spending which according to one of two suits filed accuses Mrs Crouch of spending $100,000 on a mobile home for her dogs

The 13 properties listed in the suit were also referred to as 'guest homes' or 'church parsonages' while their directors also received $300,000 to $500,000 in meal expenses, as well as the use of chauffeurs.

The suit also accuses the network of using funds to cover up sex scandals according to the Times' review of the suit.

CLAIMED EXPENDITURES

• $100,000-mobile home for Mrs Crouch's dogs
  
• $50 million luxury jet purchased through a sham loan
  
• $8 million personal Hawker jet for Mrs Crouch
  
• 13 properties listed in the suit as 'guest homes' or 'church parsonages' in Florida, Texas, Tennessee and California
  
• $300,000 to $500,000 meal expenses for network directors, as well as the use of chauffeurs

In a reverse lawsuit filed by debt-collection company Redemption Strategies last year, the Kopers have been accused of forging documents to obtain items such as several vehicles, jewelry, a boat, motorcycle, and life insurance. The debt collection company was registered with the state by a TBN attorney one day before it filed suit against Mr Koper.

They accuse Mr McVeigh of also receiving thousands of dollars from the non-profit without their authorization.

That lawsuit against Mr McVeigh and Mr Koper was later dropped by the court, but not before Mrs Koper and two in-laws were added as defendants.

Mrs Koper countersued, alleging that TBN's attorneys formed Redemption Strategies to retaliate against her for whistleblowing.

Her suit doesn't list TBN as a defendant, but it alleges that Mrs Koper was fired and made to turn over her house, condominium, life insurance policy, car, furniture and jewelry as 'an act of Christian contrition' when she complained about the financial misdeeds at TBN.

In the similar suit filed by Mr McVeigh, he alleges that TBN attorneys also targeted him as part of a campaign of retaliation for his reporting of their lavish spending.

TBN attorney Colby May called the McVeigh's lawsuit a 'tabloid filing' and said the allegations in both cases were 'utterly and completely contrived.' TBN suspects McVeigh, who claims he received a $65,000 loan from the family empire, was working with the Kopers to steal money from the ministry, Mr May said.


 

Attacks: The family feud could draw further scrutiny of TBN after its previous trouble with allegations of a homosexual encounter by Mr Crouch and a five-year battle with the FCC

The network's spending is in line with its mission to spread the gospel throughout the world, Mr May said, and the Crouches travel by private jet because they have had 'scores of death threats, more than the president of the United States.'

The ministry keeps large amounts of cash in reserve because incurring debt goes against the Biblical exhortation to 'owe no man any thing,' he said.

'The answer is, there is no fire there,' Mr May said. 'They pay as they go and every now and then one of the things that they pay as they go on is the acquisition of a broadcast facility and that's a multi-million dollar transaction.'

The outbreak of legal skirmish offers a rare window into the secretive world of the sprawling religious non-profit and exposes a family feud that could draw more outside scrutiny of TBN. Attorneys from both sides say they have contacted police and the Internal Revenue Service.

Growth: The network, whose headquarters is pictured, is seen on every continent but Antarctica 24 hours a day, seven days a week, raking in $92 million in donations in 2010 and $175 million in tax-free revenue

The Crouches founded TBN in 1973 and grew it into an international Christian empire that beams prosperity gospel programming — which promises that if the faithful sacrifice for their belief, God will reward them with material wealth — to every continent but Antarctica 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It has 78 satellites and more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates and owns seven other networks, as well as its headquarters in Costa Mesa in Orange County, an estate outside Nashville called Trinity Music City, USA and the Holy Land Experience, a Christian amusement park in Orlando.

On any given day — or night — viewers from the United States to India can watch Christian-inspired news updates, documentaries, movies, talk shows and sermons by preachers such as Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes and Dr. Creflo Dollar without leaving their armchairs.

Expenditures: Additional claims detail the purchase of two jets at a cost of $50 million and $8 million each, and 13 mansions across the U.S. reported as 'guest homes' or 'church parsonages'

The lawsuit attention comes at a bad time for TBN, which has seen viewer donations drop steeply.

TBN raked in $92 million in donations in 2010 and cleared $175 million in tax-free revenue, but its net income plummeted from nearly $60 million in 2006 to a loss of $18 million in 2010, the most recent year available. Donations fell by nearly $30 million in the same period — a hit the network blames on the bad economy.

At the same time, Mrs Koper's father — the eldest Crouch son — resigned abruptly as vice president and chief-of-staff late last year. The unexplained departure of Paul Crouch Jr. roughly coincided with his daughter's legal battle and came just months after he launched iTBN, a project to expand the network's online and mobile reach.

TBN places a premium on privacy and it's almost impossible to divine what is going on behind the scenes. Yet televangelist empires built largely on charisma often encounter choppy waters as their founding personalities age.

Needs: The attorney for Mrs Crouch, seen shielded by security in New York, said the Crouches travel by private jet because they have had scores of death threats, more than the president of the United States

'It's true that in these large ministries, they do become family enterprises ... and in many ways that can be a most precarious problem for them,' said David E. Harrell, a professor emeritus of American religion at Auburn University, who has written about well-known televangelists. 'Business squabbles, if they're complicated with family squabbles, can get nasty indeed.'

Mr May dismissed the idea of family turmoil and said the reason behind the legal fight was simple: Mrs Koper and her husband stole from the network.

'They're attempting to create a diversion and to create as much public spectacle as they can in the vain hope that this will all get resolved and that's simply not going to happen,' he said.

TBN's reach and programming are expansive, but what is more impressive is the amount of money it receives from viewers — even in a downturn.

Sex scandals: The suit also accuses the network, whose headquarters is pictured from the roadside, of using funds to cover up additional sex scandals according to the Los Angeles Times' review of the suit

During TBN's Praise-A-Thon earlier this month, a preacher exhorted viewers to bellow 'Fear not!' three times, count down from 10 and then rush to the phone with donations. In exchange, he said, they would receive a miracle from God 'about this time tomorrow.' Within seconds, all 200 phone lines were busy.

Ministry watchdogs have long questioned how TBN — which declared more than $800 million in net assets in 2010 — spends that wealth.

TBN files reports with the IRS, but the Crouches run nearly two dozen other organizations that are harder to track and they operate extensively overseas, said Rusty Leonard, who founded Wall Watchers, an organization that monitors the financial transparency of church ministries to which its members donate.

Wall Watchers gives TBN an 'F' for financial transparency and keeps them on its list of the 30 worst ministries.

Lawsuits: In a reverse lawsuit filed against Mrs Koper and her husband, they have been accused of forging documents to steal from the network themselves, whose Texas location is shown, but that case was dropped by the court

'They could run a loss like the one they ran last year for an awfully long time before they would run out of money,' Mr Leonard said. 'They're basically taking money from old people and putting it in their pocket and living the high life.'

TBN is no stranger to outside scrutiny.

In 1998, the elder Crouch secretly paid an accuser $425,000 to keep quiet about allegations of a homosexual encounter. Crouch Sr. has consistently denied the allegations, which were first reported by the Los Angeles Times, and has said he settled only to avoid a costly and embarrassing trial.

In 2000, after a five-year battle, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling by the FCC that found Mr Crouch had created a 'sham' minority company to get around limits on the number of TV stations he could own.

With their termination from the network, both Mr MacLeod and Mrs Koper plan to file a wrongful-termination suit according to the Times.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119493/Private-jets-13-mansions-100-000-mobile-home-just-dogs-Televangelists-defrauded-tens-million-dollars-Christian-network.html#ixzz1q9gFaKUD

TBN’s Family Feud Gets Awkward

http://marcusyoars.com/?p=110

TBN’s Family Feud Gets Awkward

It’s easy to take potshots at the Trinity Broadcasting Network given some of the crazy on-air antics that rival YouTube’s most viral videos these days. But the latest allegations involving TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch are more than just a “he said, she said” case; they’re down-right weird, considering it’s the Crouches’ granddaughter filing suit.

While it should be noted the lawsuit isn’t directly against TBN, the allegations of $50 million in misused donations say enough.

I’ll blog later on this as we find out more from both sides, but for now, here’s the story our news editor just posted.
———–

TBN Founders’ Granddaughter Claims Misuse of ‘Charitable Assets’

By Jennifer LeClaire

In what may appear to outsiders as a family feud, Brittany Koper is alleging that Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) founders Paul and Jan Crouch have illegally tapped into “charitable assets” totaling more than $50 million for personal use.

But TBN’s attorney tells Charisma News that Koper—the Crouches’ granddaughter—is making “absurdly ridiculously, untrue statements.”

Koper is the daughter of Paul Crouch Jr., who served as chief financial officer at TBN until he resigned in September. At that time, younger Crouch moved into a position as director of project development at The Word Network. He declined to comment.

Koper alleges she discovered foul financial moves when she took the reigns of TBN’s finance department—and that she was instructed to keep it confidential. Koper claims she refused to cover up the alleged financial impropriety and was therefore wrongfully terminated.

“Following her appointment, Ms. Koper was specifically instructed to falsify public financial disclosures, to falsify government records, and to otherwise cover up conduct of the TBN Companies and their directors that Ms. Koper reasonably believed to be unlawful,” her lawyer argued in the complaint, which was filed in an Orange County, Calif., court.
Although it appears to be a family disturbance, Koper is not actually suing TBN. Instead, she’s making these claims as part of a lawsuit against her former attorneys at Davert & Loe. Koper is accusing the law firm of breaching its duties, professional negligence, sexual assault and inflicting emotional distress.

“Ms. Koper sought the defendant attorneys’ legal advice about these matters. In response, the defendant attorneys acknowledged that the conduct in question was unlawful but nevertheless advised, encouraged and instructed Ms. Koper to perform and cover up such unlawful activities within the TBN Companies,” the suit claims.

Colby May, TBN’s legal counsel and national spokesperson, has reviewed Koper’s lawsuit. While the suit makes assertions about financial improprieties at TBN, May says no misappropriation has taken place at the Christian broadcasting network.

“The reality is Ms. Koper is very much in hot water, shall we say, for her own misappropriation of monies and, in fact, we believe embezzlement of monies,” May told Charisma News.

“We filed all necessary documents with the Internal Revenue Service before any lawsuits were filed to alert the IRS that we believe illegal activity has taken place.”

May notes that the embezzlement did not occur at TBN, but rather from a separate tax exempt organization called International Christian Broadcasters. ICB, May explains, is primarily funded from personal contributions from the elder Crouch. May says Koper and her husband confessed to embezzling a “significant amount of money” from the organization, and ICB worked through Davert & Loe to seek restitution. Koper could not be reached for comment.

“Ms. Koper is making some flat out absurdly, ridiculously, untrue statements,” May says. “Frankly, in my estimation and view this is all a classic try-to-cover-your-tail-feathers maneuver way after the fact and way after Ms. Koper and her husband made their mea culpa and confessed to their illicit activity.”

But Koper’s attorney, Tymothy MacLeod, is pushing hard against TBN and its founders. In fact, this isn’t the first time he’s been part of a lawsuit that involves TBN. He represented Brian Dugger in a discrimination lawsuit the homosexual broadcast engineer brought against TBN in 2009.

“Observers have often wondered how the Crouches can afford multiple mansions on both coasts, a $50 million jet and chauffeurs,” MacLeod said, according to The Orange County Register. “And finally, with the CFO coming forward, we have answers to those questions.”

TBN Still in the Legal Hot Seat

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1540924

TBN still in legal hot seat

Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow California correspondent - 2/23/2012 3:45:00 AM

The woman suing attorneys who work with the world's leading Christian broadcasting network is continuing to push her allegations.

As previously reported on OneNewsNow, Brittany Koper, the granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network's (TBN) Paul and Jan Crouch, is accusing the network of handing out over $50 million in charitable assets. Koper's lawsuit is against two former TBN lawyers, accusing them of negligence and breaking their "fiduciary duty and other transgressions."

According to the plaintiff's attorney, Tymothy MacLeod, Koper has filed additional reports with the Orange County district attorney, the police, and the California State Bar. MacLeod also tells The Orange County Register that his client's report to the Internal Revenue Service will be available shortly.

Koper allegedly discovered illegal financial decisions made by the company, but she was told to fabricate public disclosures and to cover up tracks. She asserts that the two attorneys named in the suit encouraged her to do as she was told. Those individuals, including Douglass S. Davert of Long Beach, filed a lawsuit against Koper while they were representing her, but that case was dismissed last month.

The Davert & Loe attorneys maintain that Koper's allegations are fiction and without merit, and they have vowed to defend themselves. MacLeod says Koper was fired for inside whistleblowing.

TBN's 2nd Lawsuit (Text, 19 pgs): McVeigh v. TBN Operatives

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/files/2012/02/McVeigh-complaint.pdf


Joseph McVeigh v. Trinity Christian, International Christian, and Davert & Loe.  McVeigh is an uncle of Brittany Kober, Grand-daughter of TBN's Paul Crouch.   The issue: malicious prosecution, request for declaratory relief and a jury trial.

As noted, this may lead directly to another lawsuit, directly against TBN.  At this point, these two lawsuits are aimed at TBN operatives and lawyers. 

TBN Lawsuit (OC Reg, 2/24/12): Attorney Responds to TBN Response

Paul Crouch, Founder of Trinity Broadcasting
Network, Financier, and Renaissance Pope
in all His Majesty's Glory.  Like that classy
tie?  Paul is a premier scholar and learned man.

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/02/24/kopers-lawyer-responds-to-tbns-response/149742/

The two sides accusing one another of various transgressions at Trinity Broadcasting Network continue to wage a battle of words.

Colby M. May, attorney for Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, responded to the latest lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court here, calling it ”absurd and contrived” and asserting that the Crouches’ granddaughter, Brittany Koper, and her family were the ones engaging in financial misdeeds.

To which Tymothy MacLeod, attorney for the Crouches’ granddaughter and her uncle by marriage, said this:

"(A)gain TBN’s real response to your article and our lawsuit isn’t Mr. May’s quote but in their subsequent retaliatory misconduct:

“Several weeks ago, we received a message purportedly handed down directly from TBN’s in-house counsel, John Casoria. We were preparing the prior malpractice suit against Doug Davert (Tustin’s former mayor) and his law firm for simultaneously suing and representing Ms. Koper in the same and related legal matters. This is as clear-cut a case of legal malpractice as you could ever expect to see. The message we received, however, warned us that, as the weeks passed, TBN would continue to terminate employees close to Ms. Koper until she stops her whistle blowing and agrees to “walk away” from her lawsuit. True to their word, TBN has already fired Ms. Koper, her father, her husband, his father in turn, Ms. Koper’s brother, and Ms. Koper’s good friend, who was also the new HR director at TBN. Yesterday, we filed a new lawsuit on behalf of yet another victim of TBN’s malicious campaign of intimidation and retaliation aimed at silencing Ms. Koper, this one on behalf of her husband’s uncle who was falsely and vindictively sued by Davert & Loe on contracts that they admitted, in writing, did not exist. In retaliation for filing that malicious prosecution lawsuit against TBN and its attorneys, TBN promptly responded by firing Ms. Koper’s young sister, who worked part time in TBN’s “Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh Gift Shop” in Costa Mesa. TBN sent us further word that they will continue to execute hostages at TBN, so to speak, until Ms. Koper agrees to keep quiet about what she learned as TBN’s chief financial officer and corporate treasurer. We are told that the next employee to be fired at TBN, unless Ms. Koper abandons her allegations against TBN, is Ms. Koper’s mother. Time will tell, because Ms. Koper will not be intimidated by such ultimatums, any more than she has been dissuaded from doing the right thing by armed thugs or by Matthew Crouch’s threats.

“TBN’s spokesman, Colby May, continues to throw stones recklessly inside TBN’s crystal cathedral, but Mr. May needs to be reminded that all of the so-called “embezzlement” allegations against Ms. Koper and her family were dismissed in both state and federal court, with no finding of liability or wrongdoing whatsoever by Ms. Koper. Nor has Ms. Koper ever admitted to embezzlement, as Mr. May has repeatedly and falsely asserted in press reports. Quite to the contrary, it is Ms. Koper who is blowing the whistle on massive allegations of financial improprieties by TBN’s directors. TBN and Colby May’s childish “I know you are, but what am I?” reaction in the press to these allegations is simply evasive of the real legal questions involved in the legal malpractice and malicious prosecution lawsuits that have been filed thus far. We look forward to meeting TBN in court on these charges, and in the additional law suits that we have been retained to file in the upcoming days.”

We’ll keep you posted.

TBN Granddaughter Not Backing Down in Suit Against TBN-Operatives (OC Reg, 2/17/12)

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.