Has a “brother” ever screwed you?

by noontide 40 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  noontide

  I was always very cautious with “worldly” people but of course I trusted everyone in the congregation 100%. I trusted someone from the congregation with a business deal and got raked over the coals. It’s a long and frustrating story, suffice it to say it cost me a lot of anguish, time and money. He would say things like, “Don’t worry about it.” “Don’t you trust me?” “I love you brother” and so on. Of course because we were spiritual brothers I was dumb enough not to sign any legal documents (big mistake!). When I left the org I came to my senses and sued his a**. It’s been a long three years but matters are finally being settled…in my favor!

  I also knew another brother who owned his own business. He hired all Witness staff and treated them like kings. Why? Because he was not paying his taxes and he was lying about his workers comp insurance. All the Witness brothers knew about this but kept their mouths shut because he paid them more money than they had ever seen in their lives. We’re talking about High School dropouts, no college education who a month had been earning minimum wage and just scraping by and now they were earning $100,000 plus. He also provided them with personal Mercedes cars to drive and Rolex watches. He convinced some to put the company in their names and gave them fancy titles like: President, CEO, CFO and so on. So all of these Elders, MS, pioneers and publishers felt like kings. That is until the FBI raided their offices. The company and its principals were hit with tax evasion charges and all hell broke loose. This brother let them take the fall and he walked away smelling like roses. When all was said and done some of them had gotten disfellowshiped, or reproved, others claimed ignorance and escaped the WT’s wrath. Not sure if any of them went to prison but you can bet they got the sh** scared out of them and are now back at their minimum wage jobs. Granted these people had become accomplices along the way but initially they were recruited under the guise of “brotherhood”. So I guess back to my initial question, has a “brother” ever screwed you?
• 

  mama1119

  Not me, but my Dad...by his P.O. pioneering holier than thou UNCLE!!! They were in business together, and long story short, him and another witness/elder that used to be a practicing attorney tried suing him. He lost big time, because he has not case, he was just pure greed...
• 

  Arthur

  Of course because we were spiritual brothers I was dumb enough not to sign any legal documents (big mistake!).

  The moral of the story is always sign a contract. It's like practicing safe sex. Legal contracts are like theocratic condoms.
• 

  under_believer

  What's funny is that even the Society preaches a constant mantra of "get it in writing." Guess that whole policy of targeting the ignorant and keeping them that way isn't working out so well.
• 

  Stephanus

  The moral of the story is always sign a contract. It's like practicing safe sex. Legal contracts are like theocratic condoms.

  Verbal contracts are just as legal and enforcable as written ones. Written contracts are just easier to prove...
• 

  Pleasuredome

  i had 2 so called brothers try and screw me over on money. soon got them sorted out though. the first guy i lent some money to without putting on paper, luckily i had a witness to me lending the money. second guy i had a written agreement with, but he still tried to get out of paying me the money i was due.

  Jovos seem to be under the illusion that if they wipe from their mind that they owe you anything, or they treated you badly, then it never happened.
• 

  yaddayadda

  I know a few horror stories of brothers, and an unbaptized relative of a JW, who got screwed over by brothers who didn't pay them properly for work they'd done.
• 

  luna2

  Its worse than family...cuz they aren't really family but expected to be treated as such, especially when they are in the wrong. I've had money borrowed by a sister that was never paid back. I've worked for an elder who, while I worked for him, flirted with the fringes of unethical/illegal practices and then, several years later was caught stealing. Another elder in a different congo promoted a pyramid scheme to those "brothers" and "sisters" who could least afford to be sucked into something like that under the guise of trying to "help them out". The congregation is a minefield of potential rip-offs...made worse because you foolishly think you can trust these people.

  It must be a constant temptation for those who have a tendancy to be users to take advantage of the stupid JW sheep who actually believe the crap about a "loving brotherhood" and how much JWs all care about each other and how honest they are. Its a complete joke.
• 

  lovelylil

  Yes an elder from my congregation. My hubby and I had a roof leak and went thru our homeowners insurance to get the money for the repair. We got estimates from two "brothers" to do the work and were going with another brother (not the elder) at first because he was going to charge less money. And you know with insurance companies, they don't always pay what you need to do the job. But many people told us this elder was charging way too much.

  Anyway, I felt bad for the elder who was out of work and told my hubby to explain to him about the money that the insurance will pay and see if he can drop his price a little. Well, he told my hubby he would so my hubby hired him. Big Mistake!

  He dropped the price but did a very poor job. He did not get a dumster to put all the ceiling debris in and I had to pack it up myself as he just threw it out in the yard and left it. He came to work at noon time and left by 4. It took way too long to do the job. He cut wood in my living room with a power saw and did not cover my furniture. I yelled at him as he KNEW my kids had severe allergies to sawdust as I told him this before he started. He also did not put my crown molding back up and left some painting unfinished. Then he told me we were even since he did not get paid what he wanted to. This was on the last day that he bothered to show up. First of all he accepted the lesser money and said it was o.k. from the begining and never said he would cut corners on the job. What a jerk!

  THEN , he had the nerve to tell people WE screwed HIM on the job.Lilly
• 

  Mary

  I've seen this happen many times over the years. I've never been personally screwed over by anyone at the Hall, simply because I refused to get involved in any business that any of them had. I have yet to see a business venture between two or more Witnesses work out. And despite the Society's warning that you should always get things in writing (one of the few smart things they've ever said), many brothers look at the whole deal through rose coloured glasses, never foreseeing any real problems down the road.

  I know one former elder who screwed so many brothers over that it actually went to court. I know another slimeball who screwed over not only his "brothers" at the Hall, but his own fleshly brother and his own parents. Some of these brothers lost their homes because of what this guy did.

  It's funny how Witnesses aren't allowed to spend $1.00 on a lottery ticket because that's "greed" and "profiting at someone else's loss", but you sure can try and get rich quick with little effort by duping your brothers and sisters into the pyramid scheme which seems to infiltrate virtually every Hall.