SEC busts Bernie Madoff type ponzi scheme in Kingdom Halls!

by brit-93108 11 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  brit-93108

  It is true, difficult as it is to believe. The SEC busted a Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme run in Kingdom Halls and targeted against defrauding elderly Jehovah's Witnesses:

  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
  WASHINGTON, D.C.

  Litigation Release No. 19764 / July 17, 2006

  Securities and Exchange Commission v. Renaissance Asset Fund, Inc., Ronald J. Nadel, and Joseph M. Malone, Civil Action No. SA CV 06-661-JVS (C.D. California)

  http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2006/lr19764.htm

  SEC Halts $16M Scam Aimed at Elderly Jehovah’s Witnesses

  http://www.theftlossdeduction.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=33&sid=df6af679b923b27cba7b2856f1ddfa16#p30

  Read and weep.
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  DaCheech

  The Madoff victims got $.05 on the dollar lost.

  Laywers eat up everything
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  LostGeneration

  Madoff stole billions, this was 16 million. Its also more than five years old..

  I guess I don't see the point of the thread.
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  thetrueone

  The point is don't be so trusting of people who are associated with the JWS, inside or out.

  Crooked people use churches to front themselves as being honest and trust worthy.

  Many times they are not.

  I knew a few JWS who were crooks ( wolfs in sheep cloths ) big trusting smiles with Watchtowers and bibles in their hands.
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  designs

  They won't feed the Hungry but they sure will take grandma to the cleaners .
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  No Room For George

  You know when I first started sitting in on Ministerial Servant and Elder meetings, I never really put 2 and 2 together as to why the CO would spend a portion of his outline dealing with business matters and disputes amongst The Friends. I've never been the type to ever work with another JW if I don't have to, and I've felt that way even when I still believed. The old saying about familiarity breeding contempt is all too true amongst JWs, and you don't have to go apostate to reach that same conclusive sentiment. So it didn't surprise me, but it took a couple CO visits and one particulary forthright CO from the South to lay it out there why they needed to discuss this. For one, it was Scriptural, as the Bible does have a few records of business deals that went sour, but more importantly it confirmed for me at least that there must be enough shady business dealings going on in Kingdom Halls that the Faithful & Discreet Slave saw fit to provide some meat in due season and address it. I don't know how common these situations are, but its happened enough I guess.
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  thetrueone

  One of my last social experience with a JW was a guy who my brother introduced to me and was hired as a sub-contractor for a big home

  renovation project.

  I had suspicions about this guy from the get go, but nevertheless my brother said he was a good worker and he was a brother after all,

  my brother is a JWS, I'm not. Anyways after a few days this guy during lunch tells me about a good investment to get in on, all that was required is

  a $1000.00 initial payment and after just a couple of months you would be returned double that amount and if you would keep doubling on your initial

  investment. I listen to him for awhile and did some research on this supposed off-shores investment scheme and found they like others like it were

  all a scam. He made it sound so convincing, I didn't bite. A year later on my brother gets in touch with me and tells about a business arrangement that

  he had with this same guy that went terribly wrong. I wasn't really all surprised to hear this, serves him right for building his faith and trust with his

  righteous brothers at his Kingdom hall.
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  brit-93108

  LostGeneration, if nothing else, in reference to your specific point that Madoff stole $50 billion and these Kingdom Hall fraudsters stole $16 million, please reread Matthew 25:40 and ask yourself:

  If you stole $16 million from Christ let alone the life savings of those for whom Christ died, even if they were small in numbers comparatively speaking -- which may have represented their net savings, lifetimes of labor and cast iron discplined savings -- would Christ let you "off the hook" by saying, "It was only $16 million and a few people, and not $50 billion and thousands of people as Madoff stole from, so your sin is lesser than Madoff's"?

  I don't think so. Ask yourself, would stealing the mite left by a widow from a contribution box at a synagog in Jerusalem, have been less egregious to Jesus than stealing millions of mites from the synagog as its treasurer? How could those who commit such crimes against "widows" and humanity itself claim to be the "chosen people" of God? Are they not an abomination? Be honest with yourself please.
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  Violia

  They cozy up to the elderly ones ( even those with limited resources) and get donations for the KH or themselves. I've known jws to "help' their Bible studies with balancing check book and those type things. In exchange hoping for material things. This can happen if you do not live near you parents . Elderly people are sometimes lonely so they make easy prey for this type of abuse. Families should let the police know if they find their parents are giving away jewelry or money or signing over property.

  This is so evil that jws would seek to defraud older people but if you watch TV at night you can see TV evangelists who do the same thing.
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  LongHairGal

  BRIT-93108: This shameful story is common in other religions as well and one reason I have NO use for religion. I always felt that certain JWs were too trusting and ripe for the picking by predatory persons in the hall. Yeah, holding the bible with a smile on their face!! I never discussed my business and I steered clear of types who I felt were "full of it".