Several weeks ago in this blog we discussed a stunning revelation by a whistleblower in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The revelation was made public late last year by a former LDS member named Lars Nielson (see his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlFZF3RyhE). He revealed that an insider Mormon financial worker, his own twin brother David, last year sent an anonymous whistleblower letter to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The letter informed the IRS that the highest leadership of the LDS has accumulated a secret 501c3 non-profit reserve portfolio of stocks, bonds, cash, etc., now worth more than 100 billion dollars. (To read the earlier post on this subject click here: http://www.marketfaith.org/2019/12/is-the-mormon-church-hoarding-billions-of-dollars/ )
The name of the LDS nonprofit trust is Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA). The curious thing about the fund is that it is not being utilized by the church for any kind of charitable activities, or for much of anything else, for that matter. A couple of billion dollars were used a few years ago to bail out a Mormon owned insurance company and to help finance a mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since both of those are for-profit businesses, the expenditures were, of course, a violation of the IRS regulations for 501c3 charitable trusts.
Since the whistleblower’s story broke, more information has come to light. Several news outlets have uncovered the names of the EPA’s ten largest investments and their market values. They are as follows (From MARKETINSIDER WATCHLIST 2/19/20) :
Microsoft: Number of shares:9.5 million. Current market value: $1.8 billion.
Apple: Number of shares:5.4 million. Current market value: $1.7 billion.
Alphabet (Google): Number of shares: 694,000. Current market value: $1.1 billion.
Amazon: Number of shares: 463,000. Current market value: $988 million.
Intel: Number of shares: 10.1 million. Current market value: $679 million.
Johnson & Johnson: Number of shares: 4.4 million. Current market value: $665 million.
Visa: Number of shares: 2.8 million. Current market value: $596 million
Facebook: Number of shares: 2.6 million. Current market value: $561 million.
JPMorgan Chase: Number of shares: 3.5 million. Current market value:$479 million.
UnitedHealth: Number of shares: 1.6 million. Current market value: $479 million. (https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/mormon-church-billions-investment-fund-top-stocks-ensign-apple-google-2020-2-1028920228 )
All toll, with the above stock holdings and many others still not made public, EPA has a market portfolio of over $40 billion. The rest of the $100+ billion EPA fund is in other kinds of investments and savings. Those investments regularly increase in value and produce great dividends causing the EPA to grow by leaps and bounds.
A sizable amount of the EPA’s growth over the years has also come from church members’ tithes. Every good adult LDS member is required to donate 10% of his or her income to the church. However, what the church collects in tithes is far more than what is actually necessary to cover the church’s financial expenses. Therefore, the extra income, all tax exempt and estimated at about one billion dollars a year, is funneled into the EPA. Average church members are unaware of how their donations are utilized by the LDS leadership since no public financial report has been released by the church in more than sixty years.
At this point in time we have not heard what, if anything, the IRS intends to do concerning the Ensign Peak Advisors fund. We will keep you posted as information comes in. Meanwhile, if you are member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you should demand a full accounting of the church’s multitude of treasure.