Church comments on SEC settlement

[MG 2.0]

by the way, Sam Brunson is out there, an LDS legal scholar, arguing some new apologetic standard that since there was no obvious harm, there is no foul to be worried about.

That’s what I said earlier. And I don’t even know this Sam dude and have not read anything at all on any other forum/board site. Reddit, etc.

Essentially we are in agreement.

Of course depending on your views in regards to the ‘rhyme and reasoning’ that went into this at the outset and for a number of years, you’ll come to different conclusions as to the ‘nefariousness factor’ I’ve discussed earlier in the thread.

Regards,
MG

[Morley]

I believe that's why this has been big news about the leadership of the LDS church committing financial crimes.

By their fruits and all that. The LDS church's primary fruit is green paper.

As I’ve said a number of times recently, that’s an over simplification.

Please give the unsimplified version.

[MG 2.0]

As I’ve said a number of times recently, that’s an over simplification.

Regards,
MG

It was pretty simple when Jesus confronted the moneychangers at the temple. Do you think the Mormons who install the cash registers in the temples ever think about that particular part of the Gospel?

Money never changes hands in the temple anymore. It’s all plastic. Yeah, I know it’s money. But it’s not green.

I’m just razzing you a bit.

Comparing the folks that were noisily bartering and trading for profit in the temple at Christ’s time with renting temple clothes or using the vending machines is kind of a stretch.

But stretch away!

drumdude, you over simplify trying to make a point. It seems to be a thing here.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

I’ve been on this board almost all day.

Taking a break. I’ll check back at a later time.

Good conversation folks.

Regards,
MG

[drumdude]

It was pretty simple when Jesus confronted the moneychangers at the temple. Do you think the Mormons who install the cash registers in the temples ever think about that particular part of the Gospel?

Money never changes hands in the temple anymore. It’s all plastic. Yeah, I know it’s money. But it’s not green.

I’m just razzing you a bit.

Comparing the folks that were noisily bartering and trading for profit in the temple at Christ’s time with renting temple clothes or using the vending machines is kind of a stretch.

But stretch away!

drumdude, you over simplify trying to make a point. It seems to be a thing here.

Regards,
MG

I'm sure it would bankrupt the church to give out temple clothes for free. Or feed temple patrons for free. Since they're donating their precious time in such important work.

Imagine paying for the teenage missionaries' food and shelter too. The mind reels at what a drain on Ensign Peak's profit margin that would be.

[Marcus]

Oh good. Mg has retired from this round so we can get back to the topic at hand.

From the article:


This ended up being a mistake. Good intentions with an unfortunate result. It’s fixed.

Regards,
MG

This is an uninformed oversimplification. The church gave that as 1 of 3 reasons for hiding the assets. This 1 may be "fixed," but only with a stain of being lawbreakers forever, and then there are the other 2 which you conveniently choose to ignore, which are more problematic. All 3 are fear-based reasons and ultimately will break more shelves, even if not your own evidently titanium one (assuming you are capable of comprehending what comprises a shelf in the first place - I am not convinced).

The other two reasons given by church officials are/were:
(a) they worried members would stop paying tithing upon learning how much money the church had saved. That's going to be self-fulfilling. The only fix is to actually invest in humanitarian infrastructure and become like Jesus. Will not be easy but I hope they do it.
(b) they worried that the public would critique the church's use - or more correctly, non-use - of "sacred funds." This one also is self-fulfilling. Just use the funds like Jesus, rather than accumulate a top-100 stake in American capitalism, and the problem goes away. The critique they feared is warranted in every way....

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

by the way, Sam Brunson is out there, an LDS legal scholar, arguing some new apologetic standard that since there was no obvious harm, there is no foul to be worried about.

That’s what I said earlier. And I don’t even know this Sam dude and have not read anything at all on any other forum/board site. Reddit, etc.

Essentially we are in agreement.

Of course depending on your views in regards to the ‘rhyme and reasoning’ that went into this at the outset and for a number of years, you’ll come to different conclusions as to the ‘nefariousness factor’ I’ve discussed earlier in the thread.

Regards,
MG

Jesus Christ, you incurious twit. It took me three seconds of googling to discover Sam Brunson’s article:

https://bycommonconsent.com/2023/02/21/ ... d-the-sec/

. But rather than comply with the law, top church leaders decided to obfuscate, to stretch the law to (or, imho, beyond) the breaking point. It’s not that mistakes were made—it’s that the church took deliberate action to do wrong.
And how should we, as active members, look at this deliberate action to do wrong? I don’t think there’s any way to justify it, and I don’t think members should be asked to justify it. After all, we believe in being honest. To receive a temple recommend, we have to affirm that we’re honest in our dealings. Seriously, honesty is such a lonely word.

And, in spite of our teachings and belief, the top church leaders chose dishonesty. They chose not only to bend the law, but to break it.

And it’s worth noting that, since 2019, Ensign Peak Advisors has filed its Forms 13F. The church and EPA acknowledged that they had acted wrongly. They fixed the problem and paid the necessary fine.

Which leads to the last line of the church’s statement: “We affirm our commitment to comply with the law, regret mistakes made, and now consider this matter closed” (emphasis added).

So here’s the thing: the church may consider the matter closed. But it’s not. This represents a real betrayal to the millions of church members who have worked hard to live up to their standards, to be honest even where it’s hard, to obey the law even where it’s inconvenient. It represents a deeply disappointing disclosure to the millions of Saints who have looked to the church as a model for how to act and how to live.

And saying “this matter [is] closed” doesn’t address that betrayal, that disappointment, that hypocrisy. To move forward, the church needs to address its error. Not to the SEC—it’s already done that—but to its membership. It needs to explain what went wrong, why it went wrong, how it will ensure it doesn’t go wrong again. Members have believed that the church represents a model for their lives for a long time. And, even in the wake of this news, the church can do that: it can model how to repent and come back from severe errors.

But simply paying a fine, then ignoring the harm, is not that model. Church members deserve better. The institutional church deserves better.

You are absolutely not in alignment. Goddamn, your ignorant BS never ends.

- Doc

[drumdude]

MG has interpreted “it is wrong to criticize the brethren even if the criticism is true” as “protect the brethren even when they admit wrongdoing.”

[Dr Moore]

One of the worst aspects of this law breaking is what the church asked the 13 “business managers” named as heads of the clone LLCs. No joke, these guys were asked to perjure themselves by signing the signature pages on SEC documents without any actual knowledge or control of the funds for which their signature represented both knowledge and control.

The church asked 13 people to lie to the government. It’s in the order and the church can never deny having done this.

Two of those people quit once the MormonLeaks story came out in 2018. Rather than change, the church picked two other patsies to fill those roles. Continued that way for another 18 months, violating the law every quarter.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Good news everyone! This just in:

By Tony Semerad
| Feb. 22, 2023, 6:00 a.m.
The most prominent investment portfolio of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew by $4.1 billion as 2022 drew to a close.

Newly filed reports valued the huge account managed by the faith’s investment arm, Salt Lake City-based Ensign Peak Advisors, at $44.4 billion at the end of December. That uptick reversed three consecutive quarters of declines that had seen the church’s holdings fall from $52.3 billion at the end of 2021 to $40.3 billion as of September.

Details on that end-of-year rebound emerged as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that the worldwide church and Ensign Peak had agreed to pay a total of $5 million in penalties for failing to disclose the full scope of past holdings and for creating shell companies that obscured those investments and church control over them.


Disclosures from 2022 show Ensign Peak lost $3.1 billion in the first three months of the year, followed by $7.1 billion in April, May and June and $1.8 billion in July, August and September. The fund of U.S. stocks, mutual funds and foreign equities then surged 10.3% in the final quarter as volatile markets bounced back over signs that soaring inflation may have peaked.

Tech, health care and financials top the list
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)

The account fell short, though, of a 16% overall gain in the same quarter for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. October, November and December also saw Ensign Peak fund managers pare back significantly on the account’s overall holdings, eliminating nearly 524 stocks and mutual funds and redistributing around $1 billion to existing stocks.

Technology giant Apple remains the portfolio’s largest single stock, with shares worth at $2.03 billion, and one of four in Ensign Peak now topping $1 billion, with Microsoft, at $1.96 billion, and two types of shares in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, together totaling $1.2 billion.

UnitedHealth Group, at $1.04 billion, is the portfolio’s largest nontech stock.

Other big holdings include Exxon Mobil Corp.; Johnson & Johnson; Amazon; Mastercard; JPMorgan Chase; Walmart; and Merck & Co. — all with stakes of at least $500 million or more.

The church investments remain 48.65% ahead of their pandemic low in the first quarter of 2020, when the fund plunged to $29.9 billion as global investors reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Rainy day’ account invested for church purposes
The Ensign Peak fund began reporting to federal regulators in early 2020, a few months after a former fund manager for the firm accused the church in an IRS whistleblower complaint of amassing up to $100 billion in reserve funds from surplus tithing that had been intended for, but not spent, on charity.

Devout Latter-day Saints pay a tenth of their annual income to the worldwide church in tithing, and the faith’s leaders have said publicly and in court documents they deem those funds sacred.

Church officials portray the Ensign Peak fund as a “rainy day” account — kept along with other investments, church-owned businesses and extensive landholdings — to buffer the global religion of 16.8 million members from economic downturns and to help pay for its ministerial, philanthropic, educational and missionary works around the world.

The church has said Ensign Peak’s managers avoid investments in industries that faithful Latter-day Saints consider objectionable, including alcohol, tobacco, coffee and gambling. Otherwise, its quarterly reports to federal regulators suggest it operates much like other broadly based, professionally managed portfolios of stocks and mutual funds.

The account also holds shares in an array of funds dedicated to investing in companies in specific sectors of the economy, including technology, communication services, energy, financials, real estate, regional banks, discretionary consumer products, consumer staples, health care, industrial firms, utilities and materials producers.

It also has shares in a large number of foreign firms and those focused on investing in companies in specific countries, including India (where the church is building a temple) and Saudi Arabia.

author
tsemerad@sltrib.com
Follow @tonysemerad

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/02 ... unce-back/