Posted on 09/07/2023 10:04:33 AM PDT by Morgana
Messiah Lutheran Church in Joliet, Illinois, received the shock of their lives after government officials ordered them to repay nearly $800,000 in tithes given to them over the last ten years, and the clock is ticking. A FAQ created by the church explains:
An unexpected, devastating crisis threatens the permanent closing of Messiah in Joliet, Illinois, a large congregation that has served the community for over 120 years. And this despite no wrongdoing or accusation of wrongdoing by the church.
In January of 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Receiver filed a federal lawsuit against Messiah demanding payment to the SEC of $780,165, the full 10 years of donations that had been given to the church by a local business. The SEC accused the local business of recent fraudulent financial dealings (by defrauding numerous investors)
The church accepted those donations in good faith and is not accused of wrongdoing. However, the donations are no longer available to meet the SEC’s demand because they have been used in ministry over the last ten years.
Illinois law does not offer any protection despite no wrongdoing on the part of the church. It allows for the claw back of donations to charities based on accused misdeeds of the donor. There are no laws in Illinois to protect nonprofit charities, so no charities in Illinois are safe from facing this same scenario.
The church said it tried for years to settle with the SEC receiver in a way that wouldn’t financially cripple their church, but that the SEC “rejected multiple settlement offers put forth by Messiah on the basis that, even if Messiah did not have the money to pay the judgment sought, a judgment could be enforced against Messiah’s real estate.”
So far the church has repaid $480,000 from cash reserves and donations and needs to raise another $300,000 within the next two months, or else they say they’ll be forced to sell their building and property to repay the balance owed.
When are they going to “claw back” the illegal foreign donations to Obama and Clinton? Or the illegal fraudulent funds donated by Sam Bankman-Fried to many Democrats?
Just more unequal justice.
“no wrongdoing” - then how do they have the authority to make the church do anything?
This seems like a 1A violation.
It’s going to get ugly soon.
I’m sure there are more details not listed here.
Is the business involved bankrupt ,so the SEC cannot retrieve money from that company anymore?
How is the SEC involved anyway in the first place?
If I stole a car, TV, PC, etc. and gave it to someone and they didn’t know it was stolen, they should be allowed to keep it?
“I’ve never heard of such a thing happening to a church.”
Some dude ran a ponzi scheme and he gave money to churches and a school. The suckers that gave him the money are suing to get it back.
With 87,000 new IRS agents you’ll be hearing a lot of this crap.
"Paging Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates".
Oh, that's right. It's only when it's not Democrats.
The legal doctorine is called “clawback” and it is used be receivers unwinding a ponzi scheme to level out the losses.
In a Ponzi Scheme, earlier investors are provided return on principal and often return OF principal with the principal (original investment) of newer investors. The theory is that you unwittingly benefited from criminal activity and should not have, since you participated in the later investors losing their money.
““no wrongdoing” - then how do they have the authority to make the church do anything?”
The church did nothing wrong but the source of the donations was money “stolen” via a company operating a ponzi scheme.
The problem is unequal justice, and divers weights, unjust measures.
If embezzled money had been given to Planned Parenthood there would be no prosecution or demand for funds return.
“Is the business involved bankrupt ,so the SEC cannot retrieve money from that company anymore?”
They operated a ponzi scheme.
Without looking, I can guarantee you this is NOT an ELCA affiliated church..
The Right should use this method to confiscate the asset of the liberal foundations, given the dubious and in many cases criminal origins of the money for the Ford, Rockefeller, Gates, Helmsley, Getty Foundations.
If I stole a car, TV, PC, etc. and gave it to someone and they didn’t know it was stolen, they should be allowed to keep it? |
Should the former employees of that business be forced to return all the pay they received while working for that company?
“Should the former employees of that business be forced to return all the pay they received while working for that company?”
It was a ponzi scheme. I doubt that he had any employees.
The SEC should yes, be able to go after the company who made the donations, but they should have to get whatever money that company owes out of a suit against the company, not by asking the church to pay the money back. The ONLY fraud is on the part of the company, not the church.
In this case money was given, but then also spent as would be routine for such a ministry. Clawbacks are a thing in bankruptcies (as I learned the hard way a few years ago) and when dealing with fraud like this. But there needs to be some reasonable limitation protecting "in good faith" recipients. For one thing, it tends to enrich the lawyers to a large degree, with the original victims only getting a fraction of the clawed back funds. And that doesn't sit right with me as regards the "in good faith" recipient. Lawyers are doing well enough already in this country.
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