5 Televangelists and Their Jets

5 Televangelists and Their Jets

By Esther Oliveira

September 10, 2013|9:55 am

1. Paul and Jan Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) - A Hawker 800XP and a Bombardier BD-700-1A10

(Photo: YouTube)
 

(Photo: Screen Grab via Daily Mail-Flightaware)
 

One of the TBN leaders' jets is like this one, according to The Daily Mail.

2. Kenneth Copeland – Cessna 550 Citation Bravo and Cessna 750 Citation X

(Photo: Screenshot/YouTube)
 

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Arpingstone)

Cessna 550b citation bravo.
 

(Photo: Jetphotos.net via Wikimedia Commons)

Vienna Jet Cessna 750 Citation X at Darwin Airport

These are the same jet models that Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Fort Worth reportedly have. The pair have pledged the aircrafts are used for the purpose of serving their ministry.

3. Creflo Dollar (private jets) - a Gulfstream Jet and a Gates Learjet

 

 

(Photo: World Changers Church International via The Christian Post)

Creflo Dollar speaks to thousands of attendees at World Changers Church International, Sunday, June 10, 2012.

 

 

 

(Photo: http://www.bornrich.com/creflo-dollar.html)
 

This is one of his jets, according to BornRich.com. The jets are reportedly valued at $5.3 million (Gulfstream) and nearly $1 million (LearJet).

4. Pat Robertson - C-21 Learjet Model 35

(Photo: Screenshot/YouTube

 

 
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Swiss Air Force Learjet 35A (T-781) at the Royal International Air Tattoo, Fairford, Gloucestershire, England.

Pat Robertson used to rent out his Learjet like this one above as he used it infrequently, according to CBN spokeswoman Angell Vasko. His plane crashed in 2006.

5. Mark Barclay, dubbed as the "Preacher of Righteousness" - Citation III 650

(Photo: Screen grab via PimpPreacher.com)

Mark Barclay and a jet.
 

Recently, the televangelist from Midland Michigan asked his followers in a letter for $79,000 to repaint a luxury jet purchased by his organization. He says the jet "actually belongs" to the Lord.

Granddaughter of TBN's Paul/Jan Crouch Alleges Statutory Rape Covered Up

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/06/granddaughter_of_paul_and_jan-crouch_alleges_cover-up.php

Granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch Alleges Cover-up of Rape by TBN Employee When She Was 13

A granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, founders of the flock-fleecing Trinity Broadcasting Network, says the company is covering up her rape at the hands of an employee when she was 13 years old.

Carra Crouch, now 19, filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on June 18 alleging that in April 2006 she was raped in an Atlanta hotel room by Stephen L. Smith, a 30-year-old TBN employee at the time.

The lawsuit alleges battery, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence, and is one of several court cases in which Trinity is mired.

Carra Crouch's attorney is Michael Koper, the husband of Brittany Koper, who blew the whistle on alleged financial misdeeds and sexual harassment within the company. Brittany Koper is Carra Crouch's older sister. Michael Koper used to work for Trinity and has been accused by the company of financial misdeeds when he was employed there.

According to Carra Crouch's lawsuit, Jan Crouch had invited her to be a guest on a fundraising "telethon" for the network, and the company paid for her airplane ticket and stay at the hotel.

During the telethon one night, Smith visited Carra Crouch in her hotel room to discuss the telethon and other company matters, then ordered a bottle of wine, according to the lawsuit, which also says Trinity makes it a practice to supply alcohol to employees during business meetings.

According to the lawsuit, Smith coerced her into drinking the wine, which made her intoxicated. She says in the lawsuit that she asked Smith to leave the room, and that he offered her a glass of water to help her feel better. When she drank it, she immediately passed out, according to the lawsuit.

She believes the water contained a date rape drug which caused her to pass out. When she awoke the next morning, she says Smith was laying next to her, and there was blood on her bed sheets. She also claims to have had "severe pain and soreness in her body in places which indicated she had been molested and raped."

Carra Crouch then locked herself in the bathroom and screamed at Smith to leave her room, which he eventually did, the lawsuit says. Later that day, she flew home to California, according to the lawsuit.

Distraught over the incident, Carra Crouch was advised by her mother to inform Jan Crouch and Trinity attorney John Casoria, who also is an ordained minister and a nephew of Paul and Jan.

A meeting took place at the Crouch family mansion in Newport Beach, where, according to the lawsuit, Jan "became furious and began screaming at Ms. Crouch," and began telling her "it is your fault."

Carra Crouch alleges that after the screaming fit thrown by Jan, she approached Casoria, who allegedly became agitated with the 13-year-old, said he didn't believe her, and suggested that she was already sexually active "so it did not really matter," and she "may have propositioned him."

Still, Carra Crouch says Paul, Jan and Casoria actually did believe her accusations, and fired Smith the next working day. She also believes her grandparents and Casoria hid their belief in her accusations so they could "cover up" the incident and make sure it was never reported to the police or to the media.

According to the lawsuit, Casoria fired Smith over the telephone, saying it was a decision by Paul Crouch, that it would be without cause even though Trinity had enough evidence to terminate him with cause, and there was probably enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Smith.

Carra Crouch also alleges that Trinity offered to not disclose the evidence to the police if Smith would not file for unemployment, worker's compensation or an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim.

The lawsuit also says the Crouches and Casoria, as ordained ministers, were mandated reporters under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act.

According to Carra Crouch, none of them made any report of the alleged rape, and she was not allowed to speak with the police or seek counseling from sex abuse therapists.

Michael Koper granted the Weekly, which has requested comment from Carra Crouch, permission to use his client's name in this story.

"We're really not saying anything," Koper said. "The complaint speaks for itself."

Carra Crouch did tell the Orange County Register, which first reported on the lawsuit, that she feels angry, and "Nobody once asked me, 'Carra are you O.K.?'"

Colby May, the attorney for Trinity, said in an email that to his knowledge, Trinity has not been served with the complaint.

"However, based on the document others in the media have sent me, Trinity vehemently denies the allegations and believes them to be without merit and baseless," May said. "Also, the allegations made in the Complaint materially differs from the version Ms. Carra Crouch has reported to third-parties, and is completely at odds with what she told her mother and Trinity at the time. The multiple versions undermine Ms. Crouch's credibility, and support the position that Trinity has certainly done nothing wrong. Unfortunately, such meritless lawsuits have become commonplace in our society, and accordingly, Trinity will fully and vigorously defend itself."

May went on to say that Carra Crouch appears to be a pawn in the larger vendetta of her older sister, Brittany Koper, and Michael Koper, whom he says were fired from Trinity and its related ministry, International Christian Broadcasters "when it was discovered they had embezzled and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house and investment condo, among other things, and they have been vainly trying to divert attention from their wrongs ever since."

"This is truly tragic, and is now made more so by the Kopers' calculated use of Ms. Crouch," May said.

All this makes one wonder if God will kill Paul and Jan Crouch's granddaughters.

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TBN Petitions Judge to Repress Free Press (Orange County Register, CA)

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/05/17/tbn-to-judge-stop-watchdog-blogger/155112/

TBN to judge: Stop Watchdog blogger

We’ve been talking about “extravagant” spending at the nonprofit Trinity Broadcasting Network these last few days — something Trinity tried to stop us from doing.

It is not often that we, personally, are called out in court documents. But last week, Trinity filed an emergency motion in Orange County Superior Court seeking to, among other things, block the Register from publishing stories based on the declaration of Brittany Koper, the granddaughter of Jan and Paul Crouch.

The rather explosive internal records in Koper’s declaration were stolen, TBN said. The 180-page document was filed on Thursday, May 10, the day we got it; and sealed on Friday, May 11, until the court decides its fate. Trinity tried to convince the court that we at The Watchdog obtained it illegally, after it was sealed, and that the court should thus stop us from writing about it.

“THE COURT … HAS SOME POWER OVER THE REGISTER BLOGGER SINCE THE TBN RECORDS ARE ALLEGED TO BE STOLEN, AND THE ORDER SEALING THEM HAS PRECEDED THE THREATENED PUBLICATION BY THE REGISTER,” Trinity’s motion read.

We’d like to note that there was no threat involved; we simply contacted Trinity’s lawyer, Colby May, on Friday, and told him we’d be putting our story together on Monday and would like Trinity’s take on it all.

That, apparently, set off quite a stir. Trinity rushed into court, seeking a contempt order against Koper’s attorney — charging him with leaking the documents after the seal order was issued — and seeking some sort of action against us for allegedly unlawful news gathering.

“What to do with the Orange County blogger, Teri Sforza, is a more challenging problem,” Trinity’s motion read. “But this Court can issue some orders that case law supports, at least to keep the status quo to determine if these records are in fact stolen and/or are forgeries….”

Trinity proceeded to argue that, while news reporting is Constitutionally protected, “unlawful news gathering…does not enjoy constitutional protection to the same extent.”

“The Court has the power to issue an order preventing Ms. Sforza from publishing the TBN contents, at least temporarily, to determine if the above cases apply,” Trinity said.

All this is faintly reminiscent of the arguments Trinity made back in 2004, when it marched into the same courthouse and asked a judge to stop the Los Angeles Times from publishing stories on Enoch Lonnie Ford, a former TBN employee who was paid $425,000 to keep quiet about claims of a homosexual tryst with Paul Crouch. Trinity had argued that LAT reporter William Lobdell ”aided and abetted” Ford in violating an April 2003 court order barring Ford from discussing his allegations. (The judge recused himself after making a crack from the bench about removing Lobdell from the courtroom “in shackles with a big ball chained to his foot so they can get a picture of that in the paper and how noble they are.”)

This being a nation with a free press — where the Pentagon Papers sort of set the bar — Trinity was not successful in halting publication either time.

And in this instance, Koper’s attorney was not held in contempt — though the hearing featured tremendous animosity between both sides, our colleague Larry Welborn told us.

We would like to take this opportunity, however, to explain a bit about the process of news gathering to Trinity.

The only two scenarios it could imagine under which we could have obtained the documents were:

• “The Security Hold was breached and the Register was able to access the Records after the May 11,2012 order locking down the public access at 10:30 a.m.” or
• ”(Koper) Attorney Tymothy MacLeod knew at all times on Friday May 11, 20 12 when he stood in front of this Court, that the Register had some or all of the records. He then deceived this Court and counsel allowing all to believe that no known distribution of the TBN internal files had been turned over to the media prior to the Order.

“Any other explanation is implausible,” Trinity said. “No reporter randomly checks filings unless tipped off.”

Every court reporter in America would tell Trinity that the job does, indeed, include randomly checking court filings. Every. Single. Day.

More nonprofits:

• Suit alleges TBN covered up rape of 13-year-old
• From beloved granddaughter to exiled accuser: Brittany Koper and TBN
• Settlement reached in TBN age discrimination case
• TBN suit: Senior workers ‘too old, too sick, and too lazy'
• Mystery math: How much do CSU bigwigs make?
• Relatives threatened to ‘destroy' Crouch granddaughter
• TBN extravagance? Read internal memos for yourself
• TBN to judge: Stop Watchdog blogger
• Extravagant spending a pervasive issue for Trinity, internal review says
• Confidential memo: ‘TBN practices ... violate the IRS Code' 

TBN Corruption: 180-Pg Declaration by Exiled TBN Granddaughter in Koper v. TBN

http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2012/05/20/tbn-extravagance-read-internal-memos-for-yourself/155188/

TBN extravagance? Read internal memos for yourself

We’ve been telling you about the charges leveled by the granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch, who accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of playing fast and loose with the ministry’s millions – and then provided internal documents to back up her claims.

Trinity accused her of the true financial misdeeds, called her assertions nonsense, and tried to keep the internal documents she possessed under wraps. They were stolen, and may have been altered, Trinity says.

We’ve been bringing you stories based on Brittany Koper‘s 180-page declaration (Confidential memo: ‘TBN practices … violate the IRS Code’ and Extravagant spending a pervasive issue for Trinity, internal review says) for the past few days, but we hadn’t posted the full Koper document, as it’s quite large.

There have been repeated requests for it from various corners over the past week, and so, after wrestling with Adobe Acrobat and WordPress, we’ve broken it into pieces. You can read the documents yourself by clicking on the links below (and if you don’t see the document on the first try, hit “reload,” and that usually does the trick):

• Pages 1-34 from Brittany Koper Declaration
• Pages 35-69 from Brittany Koper Declaration
• Pages from Pages 70-104 from Brittany Koper Declaration
• Pages 105-130 from Brittany Koper Declaration
• Pages 131- 157 from Brittany Koper Declaration
• Pages 158-180 from Brittany Koper Declaration

There have been a great deal of jaw-dropping allegations in suits related to this one, including that Trinity purchased a $50 million jet through “a sham loan to an alter ego corporation” for the personal use of the Crouches; a $100,000 motor home purchased by Trinity as a mobile residence for Jan Crouch’s dogs; “multiple residential estates” falsely reported as guest homes or church parsonages to avoid income disclosures; meal expenses of up to ahalf-million dollars per company director; “personal chauffeurs compensated with Trinity funds under the guise of medical payments;” and “multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals.” (Details in Suit: ‘Cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals’ at TBN)

Koper also accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.

Trinity Christian Center, which does business as TBN, is a nonprofit in the eyes of Uncle Sam, which means it doesn’t pay taxes on its income. It reported

• revenues of $175.6 million (including donor contributions of $92.5 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.

Losing its tax-exempt status has been the big concern voiced in the documents Koper furnished — which could cost Trinity tens of millions of dollars each year if it came to pass.

Jan Crouch has called TBN Jesus’ TV station, and thanked its donors for keeping it on the air.

More Trinity:

• Suit alleges TBN covered up rape of 13-year-old
• From beloved granddaughter to exiled accuser: Brittany Koper and TBN
• Settlement reached in TBN age discrimination case
• TBN suit: Senior workers ‘too old, too sick, and too lazy'
• Relatives threatened to ‘destroy' Crouch granddaughter
• TBN extravagance? Read internal memos for yourself
• TBN to judge: Stop Watchdog blogger
• Extravagant spending a pervasive issue for Trinity, internal review says
• Confidential memo: ‘TBN practices ... violate the IRS Code'
• ‘Christian sympathy' and ethical violations in Trinity fight?