Fleecing the Flock
How to make money from religion
Hint and Tips for Budding Young Evangelists
[1]
Once
you’ve got the flock organized, you have to convince them to give you
their money. There’s no point in being cute about it - just tell them if
they don’t hand over the cash, they will go straight to hell.
Benny Hinn: "Only those who have been giving to God's work will be spared."
When you’ve got their cash you can ease up on the threats and praise them for their generosity.
Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to give to the work of God."
The
tight-fisted in your congregation will need a little encouragement so
tell them that their money will be returned ten-fold if they donate to
the church.
Benny Hinn: "So expect a financial harvest
but you have to sow a seed to see it happen... you may want to call
your seed in today."
The plan will
work because there is sure to be one or two members of the flock who will score some extra cash and they will publicly declare that what you
say is true - it was a miracle of God:
Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money
back. You will get money back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will
come from somewhere. You go to put on a dress or something, or take out a
pocketbook up there in the closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in
there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah, woah. Thank you, Lord.'
Source:https://culteducation.com/group/1259-benny-hinn/
[2]
You
are in the business to make money, but you don’t want the flock to know
exactly how much, so you take advantage of the “parsonage exemption”: A
law dating back to 1954 (in the USA) which allows churches to give
their pastors and ministers a tax-free allowance to help ease housing
related expenses such as utility bills, repairs and yard work costs.
Source: http://www.christian...k-under-attack/
Over
at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, the Chief Financial Officer (Fred
Southard) claimed a salary of only $12,000 per year. That was the figure
that appeared in the church wages book, but good old Fred was also
collecting another $132,000 per year as a “housing allowance” (which
didn’t show up in the wages book).
Source: http://www.ocregiste...t-southard.html
[3]
You
will probably start your preaching career in a hired hall, but you
should always push the idea that the congregation needs a church of its
own. Wait until the parishioners have convinced themselves that it is
all their own idea and then you can go into action – get a family member
to buy a piece of real estate and have them sell it the church at a
highly inflated price:
Pastor Michael Mille and his wife purchased a
property in August of 2007 for $850,000. About three months later, they sold the property to their church, White
Dove Fellowship for $1.2 million.
Source: http://www.ministrywatch.com/pdf/donoralert2011.pdf (page 4)
[4]
And you don’t have to stop at one property, you can run the same routine as often as the flock will stand for it:
[5]
Remember
too, that you can work the same scam in both directions: You could sell
a property to the church for $1.9 million, buy it back again for a
dollar – and then resell it on the open market. The profit potential is
practically unlimited.
Anyone sifting through
the public records of tangled real-estate transactions conducted by the
Baptist Foundation of Arizona will soon begin asking questions:
What would possess a religious foundation to pass up the opportunity to acquire a $1.9 million office building for $1?
Why would that foundation turn around and option the same $1 building to a former board member?
Why
would it then allow that same former director to use the building to
collateralize millions of dollars in loans he already had received from
the foundation?
There are no common-sense answers.
But
that's business as usual at the Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA), a
$368 million religious organization that claims devotion to charitable
causes while handing out nearly $140 million in loans to insiders. BFA
officials hide their deals behind a thicket of more than 60 subsidiary
companies, some non-profit, some for-profit.
Source: http://www.phoenixne...nd-in-a-series/
[6]
As
a preacher you are in constant touch with God Almighty, and the flock
is always keen to hear about these heavenly messages, so you write the
details in a book. A print run of 100,000 would probably be enough – and
then you sell the whole lot at retail prices to the church (which uses
money already donated by the parishioners to make the purchase). In
other words, the donations go straight from the parishioners into your
pocket – and it’s all strictly legal. The church might be able sell only
five or six hundred copies at the regular price, but that’s OK because
you’ve already been paid the full amount.
This
book publishing scam not only gives you heaps of cash, but it can be
used to silence your critics when they complain about your lavish
lifestyle: You can show them your tiny salary in the wages book and
explain that any extra cash comes from book-sales.
“As
for his lifestyle, pastor Hinn has explained that some of the perks he
has enjoyed like custom-made suits and expensive cars have been paid for
by his personal income, including the royalties from his many books.
While
that may be true and legal, it's only part of the story. According to
the Trinity Foundation, the biggest customer for pastor Benny's books is
pastor Benny's own ministry. Trinity says the Hinn ministry buys
thousands of the books for which Hinn apparently collects the royalties.
Gloria Copeland is another prolific author:
“Gloria
has produced more than 70 teaching series covering a wide variety of
issues. She is also the author of many best-selling books including
God's Master Plan for Your Life, Hidden Treasures, Hearing From Heaven
and Blessed Beyond Measure.”
Source: http://www.paperbackswap.com/Gloria-Copeland/author/
[7]
If
the cash flow slows down, you can always get things moving again with
the claim that you are going to build an orphanage. The flock won’t
hesitate to donate money to such a worthy cause and you’ll soon be
rolling in it. But don’t do anything in the local area, where people can
see what is (or isn’t) happening. Build it off-shore, away from the
prying eyes of the flock.
“Since February of
2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting donations for a new
orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico City saying it
would be finished "soon."
But when we checked in
Mexico, more than a year-and-a-half later, we could find no sign of any
construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising that construction
would be finished in, "a few short months."
[8]
Of
course, if the stakes are high enough, it might be worth trying
something in the local area – a healing center perhaps. You’ll get
caught out eventually, but it might take years – and even when things go
wrong, you need never take the blame. You blame god instead! Just tell
the flock that god has lost interest in the healing center and he wants
you to buy a new yacht instead (for delivering bibles to the islands).
Who is going to argue with the word of god? No-one in your flock, that's
for sure.
And then there was pastor Benny's most ambitious project - his $25 million healing center to be built in Texas.
Benny
Hinn: "And the Lord said to me to build a healing center that people
can come to 24-hours a day, any day of the week to be prayed for and get
healed."
That was Benny Hinn raising funds for the
project in 1999, but this was Benny Hinn on a Christian telethon a year
later: "Many of our wonderful friends have called and said, 'What's with
the healing center?' and basically what the Lord has said to me is to
wait for his voice."
Hinn announced that God had told him to postpone construction, so he said he was going to spend that money on other things.
Benny Hinn: "I am putting all the money we have in the ministry to get out there and preach."
[9]
If
you are not as courageous as Hinn, you might prefer to start a charity
that actually works. Install a member of your family as the CEO, and at
the end of each year you can bundle up all the surplus cash and give it
to the shill as a bonus for a job well done.
In
Cornelius, a nonprofit set up to help people in debt paid its chief
executive more than $5 million - nearly everything it had.
In
Anson County, a charity that worked to keep troubled children in school
paid its leader about $300,000 a year, roughly twice as much as the
county superintendent of schools.
In Spartanburg, a
nonprofit religious broadcaster paid its president and her husband
nearly $800,000 - a third of the organization's budget.
On paper, federal law prohibits charities from awarding excessive compensation to their leaders.
[10]
But
if you do start a charity, for God’s sake don’t use your own money to
get it up and running. You are a minister of religion, a trusted member
of society, and you can apply for a Government grant to cover start-up
costs (and ongoing costs as well). Medicaid, for example, has millions
of dollars available for any “reputable” person prepared to work with
rebellious youth. All you have to do is hire a hall and encourage a few
streeties to drop in and listen to bible stories every now and then. It
costs practically nothing and the remainder of the grant goes straight
into your pocket.
Rainbow Enhanced Academic
Developers ( READ), a Wadesboro group which has counseled about 175
youths with behavior problems, in 2007 paid CEO Lawrence Elliott about
$312,000. Since 2005, the group has received more than $10 million in
Medicaid money.
Source:http://nonprofitpeople.monster.com/news/articles/218
[11]
Always
be prepared for natural disasters. There’s quite a few of them each
year and you should aim to get involved in at least one or two of the
bigger ones each year. They’re handy because the flock don't get time to
think: You call a special service in the church hall, put a worried
look on your face as you describe the heart-wrenching scenes unfolding
in the disaster area, and then beg the flock to give until it hurts –
they always do.
Even
better, because everything is happening so quickly, there is not enough
time for people to get organized enough to keep track of where the money
goes. In fact, you might as well keep it all for yourself? Nobody will
know. And if the flock should later ask to see the results of their
generosity, you can always blame the corrupt government in the disaster
area. You can say the government officials got the money but didn’t
distribute it to those in need.
On May 18th
2008, the Zhengzhou Municipal China Christian Council / Three Self
Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM) designated the day as the Disaster Relief
Day and collected donations from six churches to aid the disaster areas.
Zhutun Church raised more than 57,670 yuan ($8,440 US) for disaster
relief. However, Zhutun Church was not included along with other donors
who were publicly announced by the city council on November 3rd 2008.
On
November 3, 2008, Zhutun Church discovered that their relief donations
were never sent to the disaster areas in Sichuan, but were still being
held by the Zhengzhou CCC/TSPM. Zhutun Church reported this to relevant
authorities, yet church members say that many months passed without a
response.
Source: http://www.christian...9404511108.html
[12]
By
the time you’ve got your ministry to this level, you will be able to
afford a pretty good team of lawyers and you can start experimenting
with ideas that take advantage of loopholes in the law. Money laundering
perhaps:
The young receive free educations
and the old get free geriatric care. Family businesses connect relatives
in a web of interdependence to the furthest reaches of kinship. Wedding
receptions with 1,000 guests are common. A Friday night Sabbath dinner
with 40 people is the norm.
And that enveloping
tradition among the Syrian Jewish communities of Brooklyn and New Jersey
seemed to redouble the shock and outrage among their members Thursday
after the arrests of five Sephardic rabbis in a New Jersey corruption
investigation.
[…]
In a criminal complaint, the FBI said the
rabbis used their congregations’ charitable organizations to launder
about $3 million — passing what they were told was a donor’s ill-gotten
gains through their charities’ bank accounts, and then returning the
money to the donor in exchange for a cut of 5 to 10 percent
Source: http://www.nytimes.c...rabbi.html?_r=2
SAO
PAULO — The founder of one of Brazil's biggest evangelical churches
siphoned off billions of dollars in donations from his mostly poor
followers to buy jewelry, TV stations and other businesses for himself,
authorities charged Tuesday.
A Brazilian judge accepted
charges from prosecutors alleging that Bishop Edir Macedo and nine
other people linked to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
committed fraud against the church itself and against its numerous
followers.
Sao Paulo state's prosecutors office alleged
in a statement that Macedo and the others took more than $2 billion in
donations from 2003 to 2008 alone, but charged that the alleged scheme
went back 10 years.
[…]
Prosecutors said the church tells its
members it needs donations — cash, checks, cars and other goods — to
finance new temples and to pay for religious programs on radio and TV.
The
church allegedly used fake companies to launder the money, moving the
assets abroad and then returning them in the form of loans used by
Macedo and his accomplices to buy businesses, prosecutors said.
[13]
Ponzi
schemes are definitely illegal, but they can last for years and you can
make millions before the whole thing crumbles into dust. Just make sure
you've got a well planned escape route when the time comes to run.
CHICAGO
— A taxi driver turned prominent businessman in Chicago's South Asian
community is among three people indicted for defrauding hundreds of
Muslim investors out of $30 million, in part by promising that
investments complied with Islamic law, federal prosecutors said
Wednesday.
Salman Ibrahim, 37, who vanished in 2008
after allegedly persuading hundreds of Pakistani and Indian immigrants
to contribute their savings and mortgage their homes to finance real
estate deals, is believed to be abroad, possibly in his native Pakistan,
the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said.
The FBI is trying to locate him.
One
alleged victim, Fazal Mahmood, said he lost more than $200,000, some of
which he intended to use to put his two daughters through college.
"I
will never trust anyone with my money again," the 54-year-old told The
Associated Press. "I'm a Muslim and he's a Muslim. I was always taught
... a Muslim will never cheat another Muslim."
Source: http://www.usatoday....heme18_ST_N.htm
[14]
Always
remember that you are not the only member of the church who can see the
huge amounts of cash laying around. Your underlings may be Christians,
but not many of them will be put off by a commandment reading “thou
shalt not steal”. Whenever you give your co-workers access to the
counting room, there is always a chance that they will give in to
temptation and rob you blind:
A church treasurer who stole £70,000 to fund his stamp collection has been told to sell the hoard on eBay to repay his victims.
[…]
Judge
Peter Jacobs agreed the deal at a hearing at Norwich crown court to
confiscate the fraudster's assets, found to be the proceeds of crime.
However
he warned that Klein, one of the UK's top five dealers of his kind,
would be jailed if he tried to hide the proceeds or if he failed to
raise enough cash.
Source: http://www.mirror.co...15875-20387397/
A Chicago-area Roman Catholic priest was charged Friday with stealing from his former North Side parish.
Rev.
Steven Patte, 64, pleaded not guilty in Cook County Circuit Judge
William Lacy's courtroom to charges of theft, money laundering and other
financial crimes.
The
former finance director of a historic downtown church has been charged
with stealing more than $500,000 from the institution over six years,
court records show.
Jason Todd Reynolds, 38, of Bowie was arrested
last week on a wire fraud charge. He is accused of using the money to
finance the purchases of luxury cars, trips and jewelry, U.S. Secret
Service agent Melissa T. Blake said in court papers.
Reynolds
worked for National City Christian Church from 2002 until the scheme
was uncovered in 2008, the agent wrote. The finance director used the
church's American Express card to make about $300,000 in personal
purchases, including down payments for a Land Rover and Lexus SUV,
according to the court papers.
He also purchased an $8,718 two-carat diamond ring and a $7,600 leather sectional sofa with the card, Blake alleged.
[15]
If
you do lose control of your staff and they are getting their grubby
little hands on the cash before you have a chance to grab it for
yourself – well it might be time to declare bankruptcy. It’s a big step,
but it can be quite profitable. All you have to do is walk into the
counting room (so to speak), pick up all the loose cash you can find,
and dole it out to yourself and your family as bonus payments for
services rendered.
Financial documents filed
Wednesday in the Crystal Cathedral bankruptcy case show generous
compensation paid to insiders and family members of founding minister
Robert H. Schuller in the year before the Garden Grove-based mega-church
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
During the
same period, revenue plummeted, and church employees and vendors — from
choral members to the livestock company that provided animals for its
elaborate productions — were laid off or went without pay.
The
church paid out more than $1.8 million to 23 insiders and members of
Schuller's family in the 12 months leading up to the Oct. 18 bankruptcy
filing, according to the financial statements. That sum included
$832,490 in tax-exempt housing allowances given to eight people and
payments to all five of Schuller's children and their spouses.
Source: http://www.latimes.c...0,2859529.story
[16]
Bankruptcy
though, can be a complicated process and people will ask difficult
questions so it might be easier to refill your wallet with the proceeds
of insurance fraud:
WINDER - Two of the three
men charged with torching New Life Deliverance Church in 2005 pleaded
guilty Monday in Barrow County Superior Court.
Maurice
Arnold, 25, the son of the church's former pastor, and 48-year-old Bruce
Edward Smith of Monroe pleaded guilty to first-degree arson charges.
Prosecutors
believe the Rev. Quincy Arnold, 50, of Lawrenceville, asked his son to
burn down the Barrow County church in December 2005, and say Maurice
Arnold hired Smith to help. All three were arrested last year.
Quincy
Arnold denies having anything to do with the arson. He is expected to
stand trial in October on charges of first-degree arson, insurance
fraud, vandalizing a place of worship and conspiracy to commit a crime,
District Attorney Brad Smith said Monday.
Source: http://www.onlineath...653770791.shtml
[17]
The
good thing about insurance fraud is that you can play the part of the
hapless victim, rebuild your church, and get right back to fleecing the
flock. On top of that, you also get the chance to make even more cash on
the side. Just get the contractors to submit inflated charges for the
repair work. The insurance company pays the inflated price and you can
split the excess with the contractor – everybody’s happy.
Church
music director Carva White faced the music after launching an unholy
plan to burn down his house of worship for an insurance payout.
White
played hymns for the Sunflower Missionary Baptist Church in
Leavenworth, Kan. He recruited the head pastor to help him torch the
building, con insurers into paying for repairs, then try to obtain
bribes from contractors who would submit inflated bills for rebuilding
the burned-out church.
Source: http://www.claimsjou...8/23/112660.htm
[18]
And
for those who are a little more adventurous, why not pick up some poor
soul, insure his life for a few million dollars and then kill him !
BALTIMORE
- Baltimore pastor Kevin Pushia plead guilty this week to conspiring to
murder and scam a blind man in a insurance fraud scheme that led to the
victim's death.
Pushia, a 34-year-old former pastor of
a small church in East Baltimore, told police that he hired a man to
kill 38-year-old Lemuel Wallace after taking out seven life insurance
policies in Wallace's name and adding himself as the beneficiary.
So there you have it – all the information you need to fleece your flock - from some of the best in the business
