

That strategy, Clarke said, was designed to prevent members from parroting what Ensign was doing and to, as the paper stated, “protect them from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information.”Ĭhurch officials described the fund as a “rainy-day account” and to help fund operations in poorer parts of the world - such as Africa, where the faith is booming - where member donations can’t keep up. Some of the stocks in which Ensign has invested millions include Apple Inc., Chevron Corp., Visa Inc., JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Amazon and Google, according to the article.Ĭlarke and former Ensign employees said the firm created a system of more than a dozen shell companies to make its stock investments harder to track.

ROGER CLARK BILLIONS CODE
The fund’s handlers are instructed not to invest in industries that Latter-day Saints consider objectionable - including “alcohol, caffeinated beverages, tobacco and gambling,” he said, alluding in part to the church’s health code known as the Word of Wisdom, which bars those substances (although caffeinated sodas are not part of that prohibition). In recent years, the church’s reserve fund has grown by about 7% annually, Clarke told The Journal, mainly from returns on existing investments, not member donations. But, the paper reported, they “gave estimates for its main areas of expenditure that, collectively, total about $5 billion.” Neither Clarke nor other officials would provide The Journal with details on the size of the church’s annual budget or how much money goes to Ensign Peak. Nielsen did not respond to the Post’s request for comment-but his brother, Lars, told the Post that David wanted a newspaper to write an exposé on Ensign.The Journal’s exploration of church financial holdings included interviews with Clarke and top Latter-day Saint officials, including Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé, the ecclesiastical leader who oversees the Utah-based faith’s vast financial, real estate, investment and charitable operations. The church told the Post it does not “provide information about specific transactions or financial decisions,” while Clarke and David A.Neilsen’s complaint claims Ensign president Roger Clarke has said the fund would be used should the second coming of Christ occur, while the Post reported that high-ranking cleric Bishop Gérald Caussc gave a March 2018 speech in which he connected the “prophecies of last days” to setting aside some “revenues each year to prepare for any possible future needs.”.nonprofits, including religious organizations, are tax exempt, but Neilsen’s complaint says Ensign should be stripped of its tax-exempt status by the IRS because it has not used the $100 billion on charitable works.
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Accompanying the complaint is a 74-page narrative by Neilsen, who alleges Ensign stockpiled $100 billion in charitable donations and deceived church members by doing so.Neilsen, a 41-year-old church member who worked for Ensign as a portfolio manager-but his twin brother, Lars, provided the Post with a copy of the complaint. The complaint was filed with the IRS on November 21, 2019, by David A.

