Mormon whistleblower: Church’s investment firm masquerades as charity | 60 Minutes

Mormon David Nielsen left his job at Ensign Peak Advisors, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ investment firm, and filed an IRS whistleblower complaint. He speaks with Sharyn Alfonsi.

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[spaz-egotthatlongmoney]

As a former Mormon with much of my family still being members, I can confidently say 99.9% of Mormons who see this could not possibly care less.

[moorliam]

If you have tax exempt status, you should have 100% financial transparency. Tax exempt status is a privilege and not a right.

[ForGlory]

" It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.

Matthew 21:13

[jeffs]

Jesus needs Billion dollar shopping malls.

[bigdaddychud]

A 5 million dollar fine on 32 BILLION in hidden assets is not a big deal, not even a slap on the wrist.

[kylek]

Perhaps ALL churches should be required to file the same disclosures as all other non-profits.

[DanielleLegacy]

Chilling. All I could think of was this verse...

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."
- Matthew 6:19-21

[RobertCro]

5 million fine for a company that has billions? What a joke

[TheBrokerLife]

I’m a real estate broker in Las Vegas and I see this all the time. Churches buy land all over Vegas and only purchase to gain equity then sell. It’s just a tax loophole.

[emilywest]

Props to this guy. For resigning, informing the IRS and having the courage to do this interview.

[chumark]

When you're asked to be transparent and you say you can't, that's the telltale sign of CORRUPTION--especially when it involves $ and charity.

[jexodustalks]

As a Christian, I'll never understand how there isn't a check and balance system of transparency for members ro monitor since they're tax exempt. The members must hold the churches accountable so men aren't tempted to do these things.

[juliansecomb]

A church is running a for-profit mall tax-free (as well as a ton of other companies). How are regular businesses supposed to compete with a tax-exempt organization. This is blatantly illegal.

[LazyLearner-sjts]

It's a Corporation posing as a Christian religion so it can avoid paying taxes. I hope that one day the federal government intervenes and finally does it's job of protecting the general public against this malicious organization.

[nacarreira]

Churches....ALL churches should be monitored. Tax free status should come with some responsibility. Kudos to David for bringing this to light.

[ReadIcculus]

150 Billion dollars of tax free money and he says with a smile and a nod "Yea we have significant resources." These kind of people is what is wrong with this world.

[joaopetter]

Kudos to the journalist, very calm, collected and sharp with the questions. I love how respectful she kept the tone of the interview.

[SkiDaBird]

I grew up non-LDS in Salt Lake. The secrecy and insistence that church elders need to be trusted, and normal people (LDS or not) cannot be trusted is pretty deeply ingrained into the culture, and responsible for a lot of harm in the community. On a larger level, it’s what led the church to deny involvement in things like the Mountain Meadows Massacre up until recently, but it’s also what leads to abuse toward vulnerable populations. I knew friends who were assaulted by their bishops. There’s a story in the Trib every however often about a bishop getting caught soliciting, and it’s always swept under the rug. Utah has very high rates of things like prescription drug abuse, and it isn’t an accident.

The bishop being unable to explain the difference in secrecy and confidence using normal language, and not the religiously loaded language that creates the culture of silence tells the entire story. I believe this in a heartbeat because it is exactly in line with the behavior of this church in about everything they do.

[tylershepard]

Organized religion defrauding their followers and the taxpayers? Sadly I’m not surprised to hear this. This man deserves a lot of credit for doing the right thing. He likely destroyed his career in the process. That takes a lot of guts. The people who are doing the right thing do give me hope.

[Jose_CitizenoftheWorld]

“We never looked at it as a percentage, we looked as it needs”
Says the church who say to give 10%