Mormons ‘misused $100bn charity funds’

THE Mormon Church has defended how it uses charitable donations after a former employee claimed the religion had improperly built a $100 billion (£76 billion) investment portfolio using member donations that are supposed to go to charitable causes.

The money came from donations over 20 years and instead of being distributed are reportedly intended for the “second coming of Christ”.

The Church was reported by the whistleblower, David Nielsen, to the US tax authorities, The Washington Post reported this week.

US charities, including religious organisations, are tax exempt and the complaint from Mr Nielsen, a former church investment manager, says the investment arm of the church, Ensign, should be stripped of that status because it has not used the $100 billion on charitable works.

On Tuesday, a spokesman, Eric

Hawkins, said that the vast majority of member donations were used to fund church operations, temples, missions, education and humanitarian needs.

He said that another portion was “methodically safeguarded through wise financial management”.

He said the church, which has 16 million members worldwide, complies with all applicable laws governing donations, investments, taxes and reserves and handles the money based on “sound doctrinal and financial principle taught by the saviour”.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) complaint alleges the faith has misled members and possibly broken federal tax rules for religious organisations by using an affiliated investment arm to set aside about $1billion a year from the $7billion the faith receives annually in donations.

Anthony Burke, an IRS spokesman, said the agency could not discuss or confirm the complaint because of the rules of federal tax law.