What about the $$$$

by sandy 6 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  sandy

  I keep reading some of your posts and many of you make metion of the WTBTS making billions of dollars. Can any of you elaborate on this? And where can I find the information myself?

  Thanks!!!
• 

  OUTLAW

  Hey Sandy,wander over to Kent`s site"Watchtower Observer" .You`ll find a lot of the info your looking for there...OUTLAW
• 

  izobcenec

  Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York
  25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, 11201
  718-560-5000
  www.jw-media.org
  
  Revenue: $951 million
  Industry: Publishing
  President: Milton Henshel
  Employees: 3,415
  
  It takes a lot of printing to supply more than 6 million Jehovah's Witnesses with the materials for their ministry. One publication, Watchtower, now has an average print run of 23 million copies twice per month, an increase of 7.5 percent over last year.
  
  "Our report for the year is different from a Wall Street company," said vice president George Couch. Indeed, the company's employees are volunteers who live and work in the Brooklyn complex.
  
  SOURCE: http://www.newsday.com/business/printedition/ny-cvtop52369349sep17.story?coll=ny-business-print
  
  And this is just one of many Watchtower corporations...
  
  MORE INFO:
  
  http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/taxreturn.html
  http://watchtower.observer.org/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=JWANDSOCIETY9
• 

  Gamaliel

  Try this thread for starters:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/37173/2.ashx

  There have been others which even show pictures of private planes and what-not, luxury hotels, etc.

  What we used to do to get an idea of the $$$, even as good non-questioning JWs before 1975, was to multiply the one time 25 cent price of each magazine by the number of magazines per year. (12,500,000 copies each issue, twice a month, for a year) = .25x(12,500,000x48) = 600M mags per year x .25 = $150,000,000. That's a billion dollars every 7 years just off the magazines. Every 10 Kingdom Hall properties were worth about $1M on average to the Society, we figured. The other contributions plus cheap Bethel labor easily paid for the presses, paper and ink, so that could figure the money coming in on the magazines from the congregations was profit. I remember that a case was made to go with color offset presses for the "My Book of Bible Stories" because at a $2 contribution, the presses would pay for themselves in the first couple years.

  Gamaliel
• 

  Liberty

  Hi Sandy,

  I'm no accountant nor do I have secret info sources but I can do simple math. The Society produces millions and millions of various publications in volunteer labor factories they own tax free where the raw materials are purchased in huge bulk at huge discounts. By the time a piece of literature reaches a JW for distribution it has only cost the WTS a few cents. The JWs then purchase large amounts of this material for their own use and for their free labor distribution to the public. The Society has already made a huge profit at this point because they charge more than a few cents per item which at this point could all go in the trash, but wait there is more. Many JWs take donations from the "householders" they give literature to and many of these JWs give the Society back the entire donation in essence doubling the huge profit they had to begin with. Experts in the printing business have calculated the costs they know in order to produce profits from unionized paid workers/distributors in taxable businesses with shareholders to answer to so I think the WTS makes plenty even if their products are 1/4 of the price charged at Kingdom Hall literature counters compared to for-profit literature prices. This doesn't even include straight donations given to the Society with no literature exchange involved. Just the real estate and buildings owned by the WTS is proof of the immense wealth they control.
• 

  metatron

  I don't think the Society pulls in 950 million bucks a year - it's more likely someone misunderstood and counted total assets.

  The sheer skin-flintedness of this self-centered cult speaks volumes. If I had to bet on yearly revenue, I'd say about 75 million/US branch

  They got some dough from old sucker Witnesses and whatever contributions happen to come in. I think they are much more vunerable

  than many 'apostates' think. One good solid Catholic level lawsuit defeat could really cripple them permanently.

  They cut food at assemblies, hard bound books, reduced literature shipments, downsized Bethelites, and dumped subscriptions

  because of money. So much for 'Jehovah's blessings'!

  metatron
• 

  Gerard

  [FromNewsday.com, in an article reporting the top-40 New York City corporations.] [ http://www.newsday.com/business/printedition/ny-cvtop52369349sep17.story?coll=ny%2Dbusiness%2Dprint] Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of New York 25 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, 11201 718-560-5000 www.jw-media.org Revenue: $951 million Industry: Publishing President: Milton Henshel Employees: 3,415 It takes a lot of printing to supply more than 6 million Jehovah's Witnesses with the materials for their ministry. One publication, Watchtower, now has an average print run of 23 million copies twice per month, an increase of 7.5 percent over last year. "Our report for the year is different from a Wall Street company," said vice president George Couch. Indeed, the company's employees are volunteers who live and work in the Brooklyn complex. Biggest Pressline order ever: http://members.whattheythink.com/news/newslink.cfm?id=9398 The latest in their Stock Market: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/919034/000104746902007862/a2087860z485bpos.txt I just found another company on which the Watchtower is a shareholder: MUTUAL FUND TRUST , located in: 522 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10036 The WT is listed as a shareholder under the name of: WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA ATTN TREASURERS OFFICE DOMESTIC CASH MANAGEMENT 25 COLUMBIA HTS BROOKLYN NY 11201-1300 Percentage held: 5.51% The WTBTS of PA is actually listed as 5.51% owner of the J P Morgan Liquid Assets Money Market Fund: LIQUID ASSETS MONEY MARKET FUND JP MORGAN CHASE BANK AS AGENT FOR 8.10% (INSTITUTIONAL SHARES) PAUL G ALLEN ATTN SPECIAL PRODUCTS 500 STANTON CHRISTIANA RD 1/OPS 3 NEWARK DE 19713 JP MORGAN CHASE BANK AS AGENT FOR 6.45% ICO GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS ATTN SPECIAL PRODUCTS 500 STANTON CHRISTIANA RD 1/OPS 3 NEWARK DE 19713 JPMORGAN CHASE BANK 5.81% LIPPER CONVERTIBLES LP ATTN: FUND OPERATIONS 3/OPS3 500 STANTON CHRISTIANA ROAD NEWARK DE 19713-2105 JP MORGAN SECURITIES LENDING ASSET 5.77% MANAGEMENT ATTN ADAM BRINTON 4 NEW YORK PLZ FL 18 NEW YORK NY 10004-2413 BEAR STEARNS SECURITIES CORP 5.77% 1 METROTECH CTR N BROOKLYN NY 11201-3870 WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY OF 5.51%PENNSYLVANIA ATTN TREASURERS OFFICE DOMESTIC CASH MANAGEMENT 25 COLUMBIA HTS BROOKLYN NY 11201-1300 If you go to http://www.jpmorganfunds.com/index.jsp?uuid=F11404F1E66B3AD4-10390318391991990&fund=2252&team_id=3 and click on "Fund Profile" under "Fund Literature", it will tell you that the fund assets are $1.69 Billion. If you take 5.51% of that $1.69 Billion comes to $93,119,000. That is some serious money! The WTBTS Trades almost 13 million gallons of Crude Oil: http://www.oha.doe.gov/cases/refunds/2002/September/rk27201885.htm U. S. Department of Energy Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) Case No. RK272-01885 September 5, 2002 DECISION AND ORDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Supplemental Order Names of Cases: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society Dates of Cases: July 14, 1995 Case Numbers: RK272-01885 Pursuant to the long-standing policy of the Department of Energy (DOE), thousands of purchasers of petroleum products have applied for, and been granted, refunds from crude oil overcharge funds under the jurisdiction of the DOEs Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA). See Statement of Modified Restitutionary Policy To Be Implemented In Crude Oil Cases, 51 Fed. Reg. 27899 (August 4, 1986). The standards for considering Applications for Refund from these crude oil funds are set forth at 10 C.F.R. Part 205, Subpart V. The OHA has approved more than 87,000 requests for refund from the pool of crude oil overcharge funds. In Subpart V crude oil refund cases, a claimant is generally eligible for a refund equal to the number of gallons of eligible refined petroleum products it purchased during the period from August 19, 1973 through January 27, 1981, multiplied by a per gallon amount. That per gallon refund amount is derived by dividing the total refund monies available by the total U.S. consumption of petroleum products during the crude oil price control period. Refunds had been calculated by multiplying the number of gallons of eligible refined petroleum products purchased by the applicant by $0.0008 (the volumetric factor). That volumetric factor had been in use since April 1989, when it replaced an earlier volumetric factor of $0.0002 per gallon. Any applicant who received a refund at the lower volumetric factor also received a supplemental refund based on an additional $0.0006 per gallon. See Crude Oil Supplemental Refund Distribution, 18 DOE 85,878 (1989). Additional crude oil overcharge funds have become available for disbursement and we can now issue additional refund checks to applicants. Sufficient funds are available to pay applicants at a new, aggregate rate of $0.0016 per gallon.(1) Thus, the amount of the supplemental refund will be equal to the refund already received. Refunds are rounded to the nearest dollar. In order to receive a supplemental refund check, applicants are being required to verify (directly or through their representatives) that their name and address in our records are correct, to correct any information that is not accurate, and to indicate whether there has been any change in circumstances affecting the payment of the refund. We intend to issue a series of Decision and Orders approving supplemental refunds as we receive completed verification forms from all applicants or certifications from their representatives. This Decision and Order contains the name and address of a claimant receiving one of these supplemental refund checks. In this case, we were informed that there had been a change of circumstances since the previous refund was disbursed. Accordingly, we set up a new case file (designated RK272-)(2) and investigated whether the party that submitted the verification form (or on whose behalf the form was submitted) was the proper party to receive the supplemental refund. On the basis of that investigation, we have determined that the party listed below is the proper recipient of the supplemental refund. The dollar amount of the supplemental refund being approved in this Order for the claimant is $7,787. It Is Therefore Ordered That: (1) The Director of Special Accounts and Payroll, Office of Departmental Accounting and Financial Systems Development, Office of the Controller of the Department of Energy shall take appropriate action to disburse a supplemental refund of $7,787 to the claimant at the following address: Watchtower Bible & Tract Society c/o James Kimball 25 Columbia Heights Brooklyn, NY 11201-2483 (2) The funds shall be disbursed from the escrow fund denominated Crude Tracking-Claimants IV, Account No. 999DOE010Z, maintained at the Department of Treasury. (3) To facilitate the payment of any future refunds, an applicant shall notify the Office of Hearings and Appeals in the event that there is a change of address, or if an address correction is necessary. Such notification shall be sent to: Office of Hearings and Appeals HG-1/LEnfant Plaza Building U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20585-1615 (4) Any conditions imposed that applied to an applicants receipt of the initial crude oil refund shall also apply to that applicants receipt of this supplemental refund. (5) This is a final Order of the Department of Energy. George B. Breznay Director Office of Hearings and Appeals Now think of it for a second: for a refund of $7,787 at a rate of $0.0006 per gallon, the WT must have traded 12,978,333 gallons (thats almost thirteen million gallons of crude oil!) The dates of case originaly filed is July 14, 1995, closed on September 5, 2002 but it is unclear to me the time range in which the WT purchased this large volume of crude oil - and its use. Full details can be downloaded from OHA Crude Oil Refunds Information--Database Crude Oil Refund Data Base. The file will require an additional 24Mb of disk space.": http://www.oha.doe.gov/data.htm Airplane Incident Report http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20001207X03587&ntsbno=ANC95LA077&akey=1

  ANC95LA077
  

  "On June 12, 1995, at 1530 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Cessna 402B airplane, N710WS, registered to and operated by the Watchtower Bible Organization and Tract Society, collapsed its nose gear while taxiing back after landing. The business flight, operating under 14 CFR Part 91, departed Good News, Alaska, and the destination was Tuntutuliak, Alaska. No flight plan was filed and visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The airline transport certificated pilot and the three passengers were not injured and the airplane was substantially damaged.
  
  According to the Director of the Watchtower Bible Organization, who was also a passenger on the airplane, they were taxiing back to the ramp after landing. The runway had just been graded and a small depression in the runway's surface was filled with soft material. The airplane's nose gear rolled into the depression and the nose gear collapsed.
  
  The Director of the Watchtower Bible Organization stated that the soft area on the runway had been marked with yellow cones. He stated that the runway maintenance person told them the cones were removed so the runway surface could be graded. The cones had not been replaced.
  
  There were no NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen) issued. The Alaska Supplement, however, states that runway conditions are not monitored and that a visual inspection is recommended. The supplement states that there are dips and ruts to 4 inches deep."
  

  Cruise Speed: 210 kts Fuel Capacity: 102.00 gal Range: 1180 nautical miles.

  Cessna 402B , The letter "B" stands for Business comfort & Luxury.

  Their destination, Tuntutuliak, Alaska is located 440 miles west of Anchorage with one well known activity: Salmon fishing.

  Thnk of them having fun with their luxurious airplanes next time you go out on the field and send them your money!

  ---

  To ice the cake, look at these investments:

  		Feb 24, 2003
  	http://www.geocities.com/wtgreed/article.htm