I will relay this as hearsay as I was not personally involved, but perhaps some of you can personally attest to such abuses for the apologists out there.
Even this "hearsay" was verified by another person who was involved to some extent.
This Spanish former elder told a two-fold story about abuse of authority and abuse of the tax exemption that WTS has.
Tax exemption- His story was about how, in the building of an Assembly Hall in Illinois, the people in charge of various portions of the project bought materials and automobiles with the tax exemption number given to them. Among their materials and automobiles were materials and automobiles for their home and personal use.
He then went on to describe the situation a double Kingdom Hall with six Spanish congregations found itself in. The mortgage payments (to WTS) were killing all six congregations as they had many illegal immigrants and many minimum wage members. They all figured that if each congregation could raise $20,000 all at once, they could pay off the mortgage and only have reasonable utility bills and the like to pay. The members were told exactly what the money was for. He said that children broke open their piggy banks and adults went into any savings they had. They wrote down what everybody contributed and one congregation came up with the money and put it in a separate bank account in a couple of elders names, not part of the congregation finances.
As it turned out, only one congregation could do it. So it wasn't going to be done. If they didn't have all the money, ($120,000) there would still be a mortgage. The one congregation held the $20,000 in that private account while waiting to see what might happen with the other five congregations.
When the C.O. visited, he went over the finances. He said he wanted to see the account for the $20,000. Nobody in that congregation had even mentioned the money as it was a private matter and hadn't been used yet. It was apparent that somebody (theorized as an elder) in one of the other five congregations told the C.O. about the money. The former elder telling this story said that he showed the C.O. the bank book and explained what it was from.
The C.O. wanted to hold onto the bankbook and contact WTS to see what should be done with the money. The former elder telling this thought that the C.O. might actually have wanted to keep the money for himself as he was older and was known to have no savings and wanted to "retire." That's just theory and I only pass it along because it was in the story. Regardless, the former elder (not former at the time) told the C.O. this was unacceptable as the publishers were told what the money was for, and it was collected for that one reason, and it would only be used for that one reason. The former elder actually had to snatch the bankbook back from the C.O.
The C.O. said he would have the elders removed if they opposed any actions he took, but he didn't say what he was going to do. To be safe, the elders broke out their notebook recording who donated what, and the next day returned everybody's money to them. Four of the elders (including our story-teller) went a bit far and announced from the platform that they were "renouncing" their elder status over the matter. They wrote the WTS and said they would remain as elders until WTS decided how to replace them. Many members wrote the WTS and stated their upset at the situation.
The story teller eventually had to call WTS because he heard nothing from them. He was patched directly through to some arm of the Governing Body and this person on the phone was aware of the entire situation. He was told that the four elders were "apostates" for what they did. Our former elder left the religion over this. (His story was in Spanish, interpreted to English. I won't try to fill in any gaps that I don't have accurate understanding of- I don't know about judicial committees and Society interference.) Some WTS people came to the congregation and interviewed members, asking them if the elders instructed them to write letters. They concluded their visit with a harsh talk to the congregation and the four were officially removed or allowed to quit. (I am not sure which- I think the story teller was not sure which.)
The congregation no longer exists, but it did struggle on for a few years beyond that situation. Our story teller told us this was the congregation with the most loving, caring reputation and had more members than they could handle at the time- hence their ability to raise the money. I (OTWO) do remember, at the time, rumors about that Kingdom Hall and some financial problems with them coming about by some action of the elders, but the whole situation was over 10 years old at the telling of this story. It was just rumors. I actually pass that Kingdom Hall several times a month. I don't investigate personally, but for a double hall, the small parking lot is full on Sundays but there is still plenty of street parking. I don't see an overwhelming number of Spanish members coming and going from the building. Our story-teller felt that several members went elsewhere because of the situation.