Mormon church invests donations meant for humanitarian aid, class action claims

Mormon church class action overview: 

• Who: The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is facing a class action lawsuit from three members who donated to the Mormon church. 
• Why: The Mormon church is accused of taking donations that were given for a specific purpose and instead investing billions of dollars under the entity Ensign Peak Advisors Inc.
• Where: The Mormon church donations class action was filed in federal court in Utah. 

The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is facing a class action lawsuit claiming that the church collected donations and then invested billions of dollars under the entity Ensign Peak Advisors instead of using the donations for their advertised cause.

Those donations included funds sent to a “humanitarian relief” fund that was said to go to emergency assistance for victims of disaster without regard to race, religion or ethnic origin, the Mormon church donations lawsuit said.

“COP went to extreme lengths to conceal from the public and its members the actual disposition of donations,” the Mormon church class action says. “It created a special non-profit entity, Ensign, to hold and invest the donations. COP had Ensign egregiously understate the value of its holdings in public filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This allowed COP to ensure the nature and extent of its assets remained hidden.”

Mormon church investment scheme came to light through whistleblower, lawsuit says

The funds came to light after a whistleblower reported the investments over the past two decades, leading the Security and Exchange Commission to charge the church with evasion of public reporting requirements through the use of shell corporations.

The SEC, church and Ensign then came to a settlement where Ensign agreed to pay a total of $5 million in civil penalties to settle the charges.

In September 2019, the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims the church’s religion is a “scheme of lies.”

Have you given to the Mormon church? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by James E. Magleby and Yevgen Kovalov of Magleby Cataxinos Greenwood PC, along with Scott A. Kitner and Martin D. Woodward of Kitner Woodward PLLC and Christopher A. Seeger, Scott A. George and Frazar W. Thomas of Seeger Weiss LLP.

The Mormon church class action lawsuit is Chappell, et al. v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, et al., Case No. 2:23-cv-00794, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Utah.

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