YES, The Lawyers for the Wagtower, no doubt!
Could someone be amassing a personal fortune at Watchtower land?
by Gill 16 Replies latest jw friends
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wozadummy
geevee said
It must be possible in some way or other. Some of these guys are in positions of trust, and some are trustee's for the ownership of Halls. I have heard about some Aussie guy from Adelaide, South Australia who used a K Hall as security for a loan that went belly up and the hall was repossessed!
Knorr used to have two first class seats on the plane, one for him and one for his witnessing bag. Well that is pretty right , this happened in the eightees I think in the Adelaide hills area of Mt.Barker and he was was an elder and one the top honchos at the time on the quick build committee for the district ,you know the type, lotsa relatives as JW's ,a big arrogant attitude about himself and had too much power over the affairs of the quick builds. Of course had the mates in bethel etc. so had the freedom to put up WTS property as back up for his business as a builder. For some time I would hear of trades people not getting paid by him to do his private work so he must have looked for an easy option...take the brothers money. I believe one relative also was a builder and corrupt the same way for someone stuck some jelly in a concrete slab of his and blew it up! When this first brother got caught out he would stand at the assembly hall doors and hand out programs "humbly" and I complained to his elder cronie mates who ran the assembly hall that a normal publisher would not get priveleges like he did if they sinned like him - well that did not go welll! Now this is the clincher......people wanted to take the WTS property away legally as they were owed money by this blokes business and he had put up as collateral WTS property and it did not look good for the society losing out ,so do you know what they did..................................... They begged for money donations at local Kingdom Halls for them to defray the cost of littigation and loss of property!!!!!!! I'm not sure how it all turned out for we moved interstate at the time but that elder did get DF"d some time later but I don't know if it was for the reason above. My wife and I would be challenged at the doors from householders about this affair when witnessing and we lived about 40 km away! So I guess you can siphon from the society ,for when we moved interstate the first congregation we went to there asked me to audit the Kingdom Hall books, and when I asked them why me? they said the brother that did the books for the past few years had just been caught out for stealing tens of thousands of dollars and they wanted someone new and independent to audit them...whew it goes on..... -
avidbiblereader
It is not that it is impossible, remember in Jesus day, Judas was stealing from the contribution box but to amass wealth in this would be hard. Usually when it comes to the cont box, more then one person checks the other person who gathers the money until one person is trusted to do this job and they have a check and balance system in place. A person though could take small sums of money at a time but as the congr account starts to dip it would eventually be found out.
As far as the Society in NY, I remember the Mormons had 4 men who were higher ups walk with over 300 million several years back in the 80's it was the biggest religious money scandal to every hit a church. I guess anything is possible but some are more probable. It would and wouldn't surprise me.
abr
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Green Chille
and he was was an elder and one the top honchos at the time on the quick build committee for the district ,you know the type, lotsa relatives as JW's ,a big arrogant attitude about himself and had too much power over the affairs of the quick builds.
Wozadummy, That happened at the cong I attended...he never got caught but many of the Jws were on to him. He was so obvious and yet no one said a word to the WTS.
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Golf
Gill, spend some time viewing FIAT money on the search engine. As to any one taking from the cash box? Hmmmmmm.
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blondie
The worst thing a Bethelite could do is steal money from the WTS. They watch their funds fairly carefully. Remember they are set up as corporations and have legal staff, very different from how KHs are run. The elders don't view the money that is donated as being something out of their personal pockets. They don't even seem to get too excited about not paying the bills (info from 5 account servants). I have seen Bethelites given money, cars, expensive clothing, trips by "appreciative" rank and file members. Some have accumulated a decent nest egg, but most are probably wondering what they will live on if they ever have to leave Bethel.
As has been stated, some that work in that area might have tried but it was not long before they were discovered.
I can remember one Bethelite wondering how another afforded the Cadillac he was driving, suggesting that there might be something illegal afoot. Turned out that the one with the Cadillac inherited it from a recently deceased relative. Yes, they all notice if you have new furniture, a new vehicle, new clothes, taking trips, and wondering how you can afford it.
Blondie
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looking_glass
I am sure it happens. I think it is more likely for a "trusted" bro/sister to take advantage of an older or less wise JW that might have some dough. Think about the cases that have been in the news recently about the broker who was a JW that stole from his clients, a number of which were JWs. However, I think stealing from the hall may be a little harder, only because I could see the WTBTS not putting up w/ that for too long, because that means money out of their own pocket.
As for the WTBTS, the corporation is amassing a fortune not because the R&F are giving every week, but because the ones that thought they would be living forever are now dying off. Those older ones who either never got married or never had kids in order to do the preaching work because the end was neigh, were "encouraged" to leave money to the WTBTS and since there were no family members to contest the bequeath, presto, WTBTS has got thousands coming in on a regular basis from the death of wealthy JWs. My personal example is a family member whose husband had a ton of money and she got it upon his death, she willed most of her wealth to the society, which included a very diverse portfolio of stocks and bonds. Its like winning the lottery on a regular basis.