The founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network are being sued after allegedly defrauding their not-for-profit network of more than $50 million.
The lawsuit was filed against Paul and Jan Crouch by their granddaughter Brittany Koper.
In the lawsuit Brittany claims that the couple used the network to purchase 13 mansions and luxury jets. In what might be the most troubling finding the couple allegedly purchased a $100,000 mobile home for their dogs to live in.
The lawsuit was filed after the couple fired Brittany and another employee in September, accusing them of stealing from the company. At that time Koper had just begun a three month stint as the groups chief financial director, a position that allowed her to uncover what she says is just one massive case of fraud.
The lawsuit against Brittany was quickly dismissed with no merit and her countersuit was just as quickly filed after she discover the Crouches’ “illegal financial schemes.”
This isn’t the first time the Trinity Broadcast Network has come under fire from outside groups. The church watchdog group Wall Watchers have repeatedly given TBN an “F” rating because the network has zero transparency in the way it operates.
When asked about how funds at TBN are used the head of Wall Watchers says:
“They’re basically taking money from old people and putting it in their pocket and living the high life.”
With tax free money at their disposal it will be interesting to see if the Crouches’ really have defrauded possibly hundreds of thousands of their groups followers.
Do you think if their fraud turns out to be true the Crouches’ should be sentenced to jail and forced to pay back every penny they took from unsuspecting followers of their TV based church?
What do you mean could have defrauded? The whole basis of religion is to defraud & get rich. Case in point the Vatican.
GOD YES, THEY SHOULD BE PUT IN JAIL! Just look at this horribly ostentatious building (mansion?). Yeah, I'm sure this gold-laden monstrosity with fountains is what Jesus had in mind. This looks more like something the Romans would have built. Kudos to the granddaughter for having some ethics and not following in her greedy, bilking grandparent's footsteps.
This is why I'm currently exploring pagan beliefs. you cannot trust christians. Or any organized religiion, and YES they should NOT be tax exempt!
This isn't religion. It's capitalism. They should be tried and be forced to pay back everything. This is what I hate about religion. They talk a big game and tell people they need to follow the bible word for word, but when it comes to their own lives. They just pick and chose what suits them at that time and forget the rest. If they don't want to follow they preach, don't expect others to as well…
Organized religion? Organized crime? Hmmmmm, and the difference there is?
The real problem is the people who think they are doing good by supporting these CRIMINALS!
Those people who gave money didn't give it to a person they gave it to God's work and they will be rewarded in heaven. Those who defraud and use that money for something other than Gods' work will also pay when they stand at the Judgement throne of God. That is why it is so much better to support the local churches than some televangelist.
Any religious organization who gets on tv and begs for money should be closely monitored by other religious organizations so that this type of thing doesn't happen again. They should be held to a higher standard and should be held accountable for their actions. I do not think the gov't should be involved as they would interfere with the more honest religious organizations. That is why I think they should be monitored by Gods own people. Shame on TBN for their greed when other deserving ministries should be helped financially. They will give an account to God for theirr actions.
they should be put in jail, made to pay back everyone they took money from.. and pay back income taxes.. for all the money they have taken and not used to help the church or people of the church.
All churches should have to pay taxes. period.
Huh. There's a shocker. Televangelists defrauding their followers in the name of God. Yep, they reaffirm my belief that anyone will do anything to get people to believe that for a price God will answer your prayers.
Pay the money back? HELL NO! I'd like to see the money go to feeding hungry children in this country! Not back to an idiot that gave it away in order to secure their place in heaven! Mega-Churches are like casinos…. A lot of bells and whistles but not a lot of winning going on! DOI!
Yes they should be thrown in jail! They are no different than the Bernie madoffs of the world
Legal pickpocketing and extorsion
Why shouldn't they be greedy…they are bought. payed for and owned by the Pharisees.
Not much except organized crime does have some family ethics. Organized religion is made up of soul shriveled greedy charlatans. They should be taxed like any business. Looking at how some of these "God fearing" televangelists along with the hierarchy in the Vartican live, can you really say with a straight face that they are non-profits?
Exactly why pedophile priests and bishops are never prosecuted and thrown in jail, only moved to another diocese…because the Vatican has all the power and all the money and nobody wants to piss them off for fear of losing the connection to that power and money. It's all disgusting…
I started the same way, exploring Wicca because I knew all organized religion is a bunch of lies and now I've done so much research I am a full blown atheist. You should look up Secular Humanism it is amazing:)
I'm so gonna do that! TY!
It's not just the Vatican, you should look into pedophilia and Jehovah's Witnesses. They just are not a big of an organization but they too are hiding child molesters.
They all are. I even have friends who's family went to this Baptist church & not only was her Gpa accussed & proven to be molesting all the kids in the family but the church kids too with the preacher & they are both still there & protected by the church. Sick shit
They all are. I even have friends who's family went to this Baptist church & not only was her Gpa accused & proven to be molesting all the kids in the family but the church kids too with the preacher & they are both still there & protected by the church. Sick shit
I often call myself a Humanist & now reading that realize I was right on the money & it's exactly how I believe
Yes and they must also pay taxes; churches are not supposed to be for profit businesses.
This couple has clearly made a fortune off the backs of the elderly and the poor, living in the lap of luxury while convincing their audiences that they need the money to carry on God's work.
I think inter-state fraud comes into play quite clearly.
According to the Bible, Jesus said His Father was preparing a mansion for us in the afterlife; not that the clergy were to purchase multiple mansions and aircraft for themselves.
Just another example of how this televangelism is clearly a profit making machine and not involved in what the Bible says was our primary function while on Earth, which is to love one another, be our brother's and sister's keepers, help the sick, the poor and the elderly.
I WOULDN'T BE SO QUICK TO JUDGE , TBN HAS BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR LOTS AND LOTS OF WONDERFUL THINGS IN CHRIST , AS WELL AS MAKING THE MSG OF REDEMPTION TO THE FARTHERMOST PARTS OF THE WORLD. YOU WHO KNOW HOW TO PRAY, PRAY. THE REST OF YOU I WOULD CAUTION PSALMS 105:15 , READ IT , KNOW IT, RECIEVE IT, AND APPLY IT!
Sharla Downey As Christians ,we put our faith in the Lord, not humans, they will let you down every time.
I love God , TBN , and Paul and Jan Crouch! This is nothing more than the work of the enemy!!
I will continue to support Gods work through this ministry!!
Bill Herring – Do you have faith that your god will take care of all of the starving and raped children of the world? I sure as hell don't because it has never happened. Did people just not pray for it hard enough?
Hey, I could use some money. Send it to me. I can assure you that it will go to provide for a child whose father ran out and not some mansion that a false prophet feels he needs to have. Inbox me for my address to send it to. Thanks.
Amen, Mary! I do not give to tv evangelists! I tithe to the local homeless shelters, missions shelters, women and children domestic shelters, local food pantries, and have given to a young man that I trust who went on a 2 year mission in Africa. These are who you help. I heard that Paul and Jan paid an artist over 600K to paint cherubs that look like jan and paul on the ceiling of the mansion size TBN facility. this is ludicrous if this is true. I also heard they have TBN credit cards and when paul went out to eat with friends he held up the card and said thank you little partners! LETS ALL LET THEM KNOW HOW WE FEEL! THEY HAVE FACEBOOK, TWITTER! GO FOR IT!
I partially agree with you but i support both my local church and televangelist. The Gospel is reaching around the world thanks to televangelist and missionaries.
Nekishea, maybe it is time you wake up and realize that it is inadvisable to donate to televangelists. Their records are definitely suspect, and I'm talking about MOST of them. Do your research carefully before you become a victim, if you haven't already.
@Theresa S. Your tithe belongs to your local church…what you give to shelters , ppl , or other ministries are donations/offerings…not tithes. And Amy , I am blessed beyond measure by God because I believe in His Son and i support His ministry!! I am not nor will I ever be a victim. I am victorious!!
Ofcourse that is not right! That money was supposed to be used for the ministry so save peoples souls and feed the poor! Same as PTL! So get busy Courts! Look what they did to Bernie Madoff and he was not in the ministry but hopefully these people can get there money back! God knows!
Why on earth are you blaming all Chrisians because of the bad one's???? I am a Christian, and I understand that human's are human, no matter what "religion" they are. Do you think there aren't just as many corrupt pagen's? What these people did is wrong, and they will be the one's who will answer to God for their action's. There are so many Christian people who are out there truly doing God's work. I would encourage you to #1 Not rely on people for your security. They will ALWAY's disappoint you. Even if they don't mean to . #2 Focus on the good that so many Christians are doing. Most of them are not high-profile, but they are the one's who are doing what they are called to do.
He sure as hell never helped me. I was one of those children praying so hard it hurt that my step father, a prominent man in our church, would stop coming into my room at night, he never did, not for years. When he did finally have to stop it was because I stopped having faith that god would save me and I told a police officer, yup a human. My life since then has been amazing. I threw out the fairy tale you love to cling to and began to have faith in humans and myself. I now have an amazing family, a wonderful spouse and charmingly smart children. I know what Christians believe and I will tell you this, I would rather burn in the hell you people so love to tell me I am going to burn in, then ever serve such a mean, petty god as your christian god or any god for that matter. I look around me and see all of the venom and hate coming from good Christians and it makes me so sad inside that people can be so completely twisted and dead of all compassion just because they believe some benign higher power commanded them to be that way. Hope you have a nice day:)
I would rather they stand in front of a judge and go to jail for life now!
Dona Mayo You know, as Christians were are often brought up in homes where our parent's have taught us that even if we don't agree with someone's beliefs, we should still respect them, and not treat them in a way that would be in conflict with the teachings of Christ's love for us. I still believe that, and do my best. But right now, I am so SICK of hearing people blame God for all the horrific crap that goes on in the world. You are clearly ignorant of the fact that along with the absolute Holiness that is God, there is also the flip coin of the absolute evil of Satan. And, the fact that God has given us FREE WILL. Could He completely eradicate the evil in this world, yes, but that would be messing with the free will He has given us. What goes on in the world is horrific and unimaginable, but don't blame God, blame the people who are committing the acts.
I agree with you and YES… in THIS COUNTRY!!! Very well put Lisa!!
Beth Hersey- Leamon , well, obviously it isn't just teleevangelist that have helped me reach this conclusion. I guess that most of the most compassionate and careing people I've met during my life are not Christian and stuff like this just helps me decide. Fathi in the lord is just fine, but it "should" reflect in the life being lived and way way too often, I'm just not seeing it.
Are you sure? We should never put blind trust in people. Even when we hope and pray that they haven't done anything wrong.
This is not at all surprising. I used to live in Orange County, CA, over 25 years ago. I had a lot of friends who worked at TBN, and quit because they could not stand the hypocrisy. I've had the opportunity to go to Israel, and have heard the tour guides say they will never, ever work for the Crouches because of their conceit, greediness and hypocrisy. These people are reaping what they have sown. They live like sultans and treat their employees like dirt. People like the Crouches sully the name of Jesus Christ and give Christians a bad name.
A $100,000 mobile home for their dogs? And I seem to remember the furor over an air-conditioned dog house….wow….
This is sad….. I pray that those that have been touched by the ministries, understand that this is the work of the enemy. Don't turn from God!!!!!! This is what makes sinners think it is all a scheme… but it is not. If this is true, God has brought to light the sin against Him and His children. There will be justice God has it all worked out. I believe what God wants will be. done happen
Yeah, if you are supporting evil, you are partly responsible for that evil.
If they are taking moneys in Gods name, but not using it for Gods work, then yes they should go to jail & return the money. What moneys that is not reclaimed should go to homes for humanity
Its about time for this scam to be unraveled and yes definitively jail time is warranted. Just to think God will judge them you must be delusional. Jim Bakker times 1000 percent.
I personally know one teleevangelist, he was my former lead pastor, and have met several others, and not all of them live the high life. If a person has a calling to spread the gospel and does it on television and is still a honest, unasming person than more power to them. But I agree with the folks here who have bones to pick with the McMansion crowd that preach and have no intent to follow Gods principles of charity, and attempt to boast about the Rolls Royces and Mercedes. It really strikes me as very telling when an organization like that, does not publish on their website their financials. I expect organizations to have almost all of of their donations going to equipment and purchase of time on the media they broadcast in. Which is why I would never support a teleevangelim or radio evangelism ministry that was not run by a main stream church. None of these single megachurches have ever stood up to scrutiny as far as I've ever seen.
Marianne Kelly well said, very well said. If I have to pay taxes out the ass then so should they!
We don't even know if this true or not. Right now it is nothing more than an accusation.
Yes and should be raped you just shouldn't take money from our elders no matter how holy they try to make their cause seem its stealing from the ppl who paved the way for our generation and generations to come… Down with TBN!
Sharla & Arienne: Please be my new friends. I love your comments & give them & you five woofs !! Peace
right…give an account to God, right after that they can talk with Mother Goose then Peter Pan…
Sounds to me like they may be related to the Koch bros. and the Walton (Walmart) families, and their church is Wall Street and the big banks.
do the words HELL YEAH MAKE THEM PAY IT BACK mean anything? and oh, I forgot; send their asses to JAIL!
Then they wonder why people don't believe in organized religion or in my case not at all! Bury their asses under the jail no mercy!
the only thing more offensive than these people are the idiots who give them money…..honestly, if you are stupid enough to fall for this then you deserve to be defrauded.
I tend to distrust anyone who gets on TV and begs for money–especially those who tell sob stories. It doesn't matter who they are. There is a strong possibility the money will not go where you want it to go.
I feel sorry for all of you guys that posted all that anti God stuff, the way you hate those people you think are defrauding people, it's going to be a shame you'll be spending eternity with them. Not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of God. Just saying!
The devil uses TV to manipulate the minds of men, I believe there are legit TV evangelist but I don't rest my wisdom and hope on them. I read the bible, support my local church and know God is working through hearts of men, woman, children. If you don't read your bible then you will never know the truth nor have wisdom to understand why things happen the way they do, it's as simple as that.
You are a rambling idiot.