32 ICSA TODAY 30
complaint. ‘The Church does not provide information about
specific transactions or financial decisions,’ spokesman Eric
Hawkins said in a statement. The complaint provides a window
into the closely held finances of one of the nation’s most visible
religious organizations, based in Salt Lake City. It details a
church fortune far exceeding past estimates and encompassing
stocks, bonds and cash.
The complaint was filed by David A. Nielsen, a 41-year-old
Mormon who worked until September as a senior portfolio
manager at the church’s investment division, a company
named Ensign Peak Advisors that is based near the church’s
headquarters. Nonprofit organizations, including religious
groups, are exempted in the United States from paying
taxes on their income. Ensign is registered with authorities
as a supporting organization and integrated auxiliary of the
Mormon Church. This permits it to operate as a nonprofit and
to make money largely free from U.S. taxes. The exemption
requires that Ensign operate exclusively for religious,
educational or other charitable purposes, a condition that
Nielsen says the firm has not met. In a declaration signed under
penalty of perjury, Nielsen urges the IRS to strip the nonprofit of
its tax-exempt status and alleges that Ensign could owe billions
in taxes. He is seeking a reward from the IRS, which offers
whistleblowers a cut of unpaid taxes that it recovers.
Nielsen did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails
seeking comment. His twin brother, Lars P. Nielsen, provided
a copy of the complaint to The Post, along with dozens of
supporting documents. Lars Nielsen, a health-care consultant
in Minnesota, said he prepared the complaint with his brother
and helped him submit it to the IRS. Lars Nielsen said in a
statement to The Post that his brother asked him to write
an exposé on his former employer.” (The Washington Post,
12/17/19)
“Cult” church leader sentenced to 13 years in prison in
sexual abuse case
“Michael Sperou, the disgraced leader of a church group that
prosecutors called a ‘cult,’ was sentenced Friday to about 13
years in prison for sexually abusing a former member when she
was a child. … Prosecutor Melissa Marrero described Sperou
as a prolific child predator who acknowledged during the trial
that he abused two of the women who have accused him.
She said he lacks remorse and continues to treat his victims
with ‘disdain,’ glaring at one during his trial. ‘He was offending
against multiple young children over the course of years and
years and years,’ Marrero told the judge. Sperou led what’s
now called the North Clackamas Bible Community. Former
members describe the group as a cult that required them to live
in a network of homes in Happy Valley and Portland, sometimes
with entire families in a single bedroom and children living
in closets. Former members said Sperou exercised absolute
control over the food members ate, that he drank heavily and
used drugs and took as much as 25 percent of their incomes
as a church tax. Prosecutors had sought the maximum
sentence—170 months—for Sperou. Marrero said a lengthy
prison sentence is the only way to protect children in his group
from becoming victims.” (Oregon Live, 01/31/20)
Eighty NXIVM victims sue former leaders for human
trafficking
“...80 individuals filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn today
against the former leaders of the purported self-improvement
company NXIVM. The lawsuit seeks compensation from NXIVM
founder Keith Raniere and members of his ‘Inner Circle,’
including heiresses Clare Bronfman and Sara Bronfman
and actresses Alison Mack and Nicki Clyne, for fraud, forced
labor, human trafficking and for conducting unlawful medical
experiments. The complaint alleges that the defendants
peddled an inherently risky ‘pseudo-scientific hodgepodge of
psychotherapeutic methods’ as expensive self-improvement
courses, taken by thousands of unsuspecting people, many of
whom lost their life savings and were severely traumatized by
the process.” (Frank Report, 01/28/20)
NXIVM “sex cult” also a huge pyramid scheme, lawsuit says
“Eighty people contended that they were bilked out of millions
of dollars through a ‘coercive’ scheme by the self-help group
… N[XIVM], [which] gained a reputation as a ‘sex cult’ last year
after its leader, Keith Raniere, was convicted of coercing some
of his female followers into sexual servitude, even creating
a ritual in which they were branded with his initials. But a
lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday illuminated
another unsavory side of N[XIVM]. Most participants in the
group were not Mr. Raniere’s sex slaves, the lawsuit said, but
rather victims of an insidious pyramid scheme who were lured
by false scientific claims into paying thousands of dollars for
classes. ‘They get you to not trust your own decision-making
process,’ said one former member, Sally Brink, who said she
paid $145,000 to take N[XIVM] classes over the years. ‘They tell
you that you need them to make decisions. You start to doubt
everything.’ Ms. Brink was among the 80 plaintiffs who sued Mr.
Raniere and 14 other associates of N[XIVM] (pronounced NEX-
ee-um). The 200-page lawsuit details sprawling allegations of
fraud and abuse, including that N[XIVM]’s leaders drew ‘from
methods used in pyramid schemes’ to take people’s money and
make it ‘physically and psychologically difficult, and in some
cases impossible, to leave the coercive community.’” (The New
York Times, 1/29/20)
November 18, 1978: Jonestown massacre claims more than
900 lives
“Cult leader Jim Jones coerced his followers into taking their
own lives after an investigation into his Guyanese commune
ended in the murder of a US congressman 41 years ago today.
A total of 909 members of Jones’ ‘Peoples Temple,’ including
children and infants, drank from a vat containing a mixture
of cyanide, valium and sleeping pills that had been blended
with grape-flavoured soft drink. Jones was found with a bullet
complaint. ‘The Church does not provide information about
specific transactions or financial decisions,’ spokesman Eric
Hawkins said in a statement. The complaint provides a window
into the closely held finances of one of the nation’s most visible
religious organizations, based in Salt Lake City. It details a
church fortune far exceeding past estimates and encompassing
stocks, bonds and cash.
The complaint was filed by David A. Nielsen, a 41-year-old
Mormon who worked until September as a senior portfolio
manager at the church’s investment division, a company
named Ensign Peak Advisors that is based near the church’s
headquarters. Nonprofit organizations, including religious
groups, are exempted in the United States from paying
taxes on their income. Ensign is registered with authorities
as a supporting organization and integrated auxiliary of the
Mormon Church. This permits it to operate as a nonprofit and
to make money largely free from U.S. taxes. The exemption
requires that Ensign operate exclusively for religious,
educational or other charitable purposes, a condition that
Nielsen says the firm has not met. In a declaration signed under
penalty of perjury, Nielsen urges the IRS to strip the nonprofit of
its tax-exempt status and alleges that Ensign could owe billions
in taxes. He is seeking a reward from the IRS, which offers
whistleblowers a cut of unpaid taxes that it recovers.
Nielsen did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails
seeking comment. His twin brother, Lars P. Nielsen, provided
a copy of the complaint to The Post, along with dozens of
supporting documents. Lars Nielsen, a health-care consultant
in Minnesota, said he prepared the complaint with his brother
and helped him submit it to the IRS. Lars Nielsen said in a
statement to The Post that his brother asked him to write
an exposé on his former employer.” (The Washington Post,
12/17/19)
“Cult” church leader sentenced to 13 years in prison in
sexual abuse case
“Michael Sperou, the disgraced leader of a church group that
prosecutors called a ‘cult,’ was sentenced Friday to about 13
years in prison for sexually abusing a former member when she
was a child. … Prosecutor Melissa Marrero described Sperou
as a prolific child predator who acknowledged during the trial
that he abused two of the women who have accused him.
She said he lacks remorse and continues to treat his victims
with ‘disdain,’ glaring at one during his trial. ‘He was offending
against multiple young children over the course of years and
years and years,’ Marrero told the judge. Sperou led what’s
now called the North Clackamas Bible Community. Former
members describe the group as a cult that required them to live
in a network of homes in Happy Valley and Portland, sometimes
with entire families in a single bedroom and children living
in closets. Former members said Sperou exercised absolute
control over the food members ate, that he drank heavily and
used drugs and took as much as 25 percent of their incomes
as a church tax. Prosecutors had sought the maximum
sentence—170 months—for Sperou. Marrero said a lengthy
prison sentence is the only way to protect children in his group
from becoming victims.” (Oregon Live, 01/31/20)
Eighty NXIVM victims sue former leaders for human
trafficking
“...80 individuals filed a lawsuit in federal court in Brooklyn today
against the former leaders of the purported self-improvement
company NXIVM. The lawsuit seeks compensation from NXIVM
founder Keith Raniere and members of his ‘Inner Circle,’
including heiresses Clare Bronfman and Sara Bronfman
and actresses Alison Mack and Nicki Clyne, for fraud, forced
labor, human trafficking and for conducting unlawful medical
experiments. The complaint alleges that the defendants
peddled an inherently risky ‘pseudo-scientific hodgepodge of
psychotherapeutic methods’ as expensive self-improvement
courses, taken by thousands of unsuspecting people, many of
whom lost their life savings and were severely traumatized by
the process.” (Frank Report, 01/28/20)
NXIVM “sex cult” also a huge pyramid scheme, lawsuit says
“Eighty people contended that they were bilked out of millions
of dollars through a ‘coercive’ scheme by the self-help group
… N[XIVM], [which] gained a reputation as a ‘sex cult’ last year
after its leader, Keith Raniere, was convicted of coercing some
of his female followers into sexual servitude, even creating
a ritual in which they were branded with his initials. But a
lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday illuminated
another unsavory side of N[XIVM]. Most participants in the
group were not Mr. Raniere’s sex slaves, the lawsuit said, but
rather victims of an insidious pyramid scheme who were lured
by false scientific claims into paying thousands of dollars for
classes. ‘They get you to not trust your own decision-making
process,’ said one former member, Sally Brink, who said she
paid $145,000 to take N[XIVM] classes over the years. ‘They tell
you that you need them to make decisions. You start to doubt
everything.’ Ms. Brink was among the 80 plaintiffs who sued Mr.
Raniere and 14 other associates of N[XIVM] (pronounced NEX-
ee-um). The 200-page lawsuit details sprawling allegations of
fraud and abuse, including that N[XIVM]’s leaders drew ‘from
methods used in pyramid schemes’ to take people’s money and
make it ‘physically and psychologically difficult, and in some
cases impossible, to leave the coercive community.’” (The New
York Times, 1/29/20)
November 18, 1978: Jonestown massacre claims more than
900 lives
“Cult leader Jim Jones coerced his followers into taking their
own lives after an investigation into his Guyanese commune
ended in the murder of a US congressman 41 years ago today.
A total of 909 members of Jones’ ‘Peoples Temple,’ including
children and infants, drank from a vat containing a mixture
of cyanide, valium and sleeping pills that had been blended
with grape-flavoured soft drink. Jones was found with a bullet
