Mormon whistleblower: Church’s investment firm masquerades as charity | 60 Minutes
Mormon David Nielsen left his job at Ensign Peak Advisors, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ investment firm, and filed an IRS whistleblower complaint. He speaks with Sharyn Alfonsi.
#news #60minutes #religion
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Do Scientology next! 🤠
Kudos to the journalist, very calm, collected and sharp with the questions. I love how respectful she kept the tone of the interview.
So what..
@Li wu got nothing nice to say try keeping to yourself 👍🏼
I saw her as a little slimy myself. Asking questions she knows no nonprofit should answer and then pushing with more of the same questions.
@Paul JAY C Slimy? As the church hides it’s wealth even from their congregation, you got your priorities backwards.
Much admiration for this man’s morality and bravery in speaking out..
I’m sure he’ll be donating his 30% whistle blower payout then
I agree. When someone speaks out about the wrongs of companies, usually they are blackballed. It’s why so many low wage workers want to speak out but don’t. They need the job.
TBH he seems rehearsed and not sincere. IDK
@budoboy I don’t believe your mad at him and not at the church for committing fraud, lying, deceiving and hoarding billions from the tithe of the poor. You need to adjust your moral compass.
snitch. kinda makes it easier to snitch when they call you whistleblower. same betrayal of trust applies
This was very informative and disgusting at the same time. I never understood the Morman church until I worked with a guy who left the Morman church and filled me in on why he left the church. This reinforces the points he made. Some religion with secret 100 billion in reserves, that preach charity and sitting on all that money, is not a charity. Just think what that money could do for the homeless, the bellies of children in poor neighborhoods who have nothing to eat. They need to lose their tax exempt status and be investigated under the Rico act. This is why I detest most organized religious. They are not following the teachings of Jesus. They are in it for the money. Disgusting
Hi, hope you are well. I would also recommend talking to someone who hasn’t left the church to get a more thorough set of perspectives. The church’s humanitarian arm does many projects across many countries to help those who are in need. They provided an annual report for last year about their expenditures that surpassed $1 billion for humanitarian projects. They deliver food and water. They provide assistance to earthquake victims. They provide education. They provide relief to refugees. They donated 20 million to help disburse vaccines early in the COVID pandemic. They are a critical partner to many humanitarian organizations. Those humanitarian projects don’t include the vast other programs that they have such has maintaining many church buildings for their 17 million church members. There is much more to be highlighted here than what was in this 60 Minutes clip.
Newsflash, they aren’t the only church that does this crap.
@jhoskiss so why is the church being so secretive about its investments and business practices? Speaking with someone in the cult doesn’t help to clear up the cult’s shady practices.
It was a very bad decision to remove the Glass-Steagall Act in the late 1990s, which led to the spectacular failure of huge banks during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. To prevent another disaster, Dodd-Frank and this statute both need to be reestablished right away. What happened with SVB is only the beginning of what will happen if nothing is done to address the current situation.
In my opinion, SVB was attempting to restructure their bond portfolio, which involved selling their low-yielding bonds despite the potential loss, and compensating for it by buying higher-interest-rate bonds on the open market.
@Trazz Palmer Only a good FA will be enough to guide you through the current market volatility. I’ve been speaking with an advisor for a while now, primarily because I don’t have the necessary expertise or stamina to handle these recurrent market conditions. The fact that I made over $220K during this downturn proved that there is more to the market than the typical person is aware of. The greatest course of action right now is to have an investing consultant, especially for people who are nearing retirement.
@McGinn Navraj We’re only just an information away from amassing wealth, I know a lot of folks that made fortunes from the Dotcom crash as well as the 08’ crash and I’ve been looking into similar opportunities in this present market, could this coach that guides you help?
My Financial Advisor is JEANNE LYNN WOLF. I found her on a CNBC interview where she was featured and reached out to her afterwards. She has since provide entry and exit points on the securities I focus on. You can run a quick online research with her name if you care for supervision. I basically follow her market moves and haven’t regretted doing so.
Right now, I’m literally hanging on by a straw, so your advice couldn’t have come at a better time! I’ll look her up on the internet and then give her a call.
Secrecy masquerading as confidentiality is still deceit. The church has earned all of its black eyes over the years. When this is how they operate they do not deserve their nonprofit status. Trust has been broken and isn’t getting put back together.
This is shameful. Thank you for reporting this. Churches should pay taxes and deduct charitable donations like everyone else.
Exactly!!!
@Alcyoneus Nothing burger!! Specially the US operations of the LDS church. Of course the church will be an aggressive investor to serve the donations of givers and enlarging the endowments. Crazy that he thinks the Church should just spend tomorrow what it received yesterday. BTW, I’m not a Mormon. I’m just a guy who admires this church’s excellent work for their own members, and society as large.
*It’s so disgusting that “charities” only need to spend 5% of assets to get “charity” status! Management expenses indeed!*
I am setting up my Christian charity, but if it doesn’t benefit the people on the ground here… I will be held accountable. Accountability is important. -Blessings from Tajji in Tanzania
I would suppose that that 5 percent is ok since that’s all one could draw from the principal to keep the thing going. Many of these charities possibly don’t have new money coming in (like the Mormon account does).
That’s why I do not give to any charity. If 100% was used to accomplish the work said is needed, then yes I’d help, otherwise, no deal. Full of dishonest money hungry greedy people.
She should have pressed him harder on some of his answers. For instance “We’ve never looked at it as a percentage, we looked at it based on needs, to make sure we’re comfortable with how many years worth we have…” Ok, so how are you calculating how much you need per year and how many years is that 120 billion dollars going to cover? Based on what??
It probably fluctuates every year. So many variables.
Taxing the churches will encourage them to do charitable works.. to maintain their charitable status.. otherwise they could have levied property taxes to support local schools and social programs. Would they open their books to the IRS ?
Yeah that answer was strange to me. So he doesn’t look at charitable giving as a percentage but he looks at tithe receiving as a percentage.
arch nemesis for any investor let alone church is that if ya dont have goal, only thing driving you is greed and ” a little bit more” to eternity
I think we can all finally agree on something: absolutely nothing will be done, and no one will go to jail.
Of course.
If the government won’t take action on this then the people are going to have to take it in to their own hands.
It pains me but I agree with you 100%.
Why I vote independent only.
Yup nothing will happen I live in Utah and trust me it sucks having the government in your pocket and the church humm