Has anyone heard of "Secret Disfellowshipping" by Jehovah's Witnesses? Menlo Park Ca. Congregation. Update.
by Balaamsass 65 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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3rdgen
The reason the individual congregation corporations are shams is that the law says you can't have it both ways.
Either cong Elders are under the jurisdiction of the WBTS and must do what they say OR They are independant corporations.(kind of like a franchise)
The WBTS doesn't want to be legally or financially responsibile for the decisions the Elders make in their respective congregations. The WTBTS doesn't want to pay out any more money on lawsuits. In an attempt to accomplish this goal, they have set up countless corporations including making each cong its OWN corporation.
The problem is that IF the cong is legally and financially SEPARATE then they are entitled to make their OWN financial decisions.THEY NO LONGER ANSWER to the WTBTS. The society can't tell them who to hire and fire. (disfellowshipping those elders) They can't seize their paid for KH. They can't seize their bank accounts. Yet, this is exactly what happened at Menlo Park. They thus pierced their own corporate veil.
They want the "veil" of non-responsibility for lawsuits. They want to keep at arms length when it is in their financial interest to do so but at the same time they want to micromanage each one.
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JeffT
I'm one of those accountants who has been yelling at Balaamsass and his business buddies about separating personal and corporate assets. I've only been partially following the story on Menlo Park, but it sounds like the WTBS has created a first class mess for itself. It is quite possible that there is no longer a corporate veil in dealing with Watchtower corporations and subcorporations. This makes two very real issues: problems at the local level (Condi for example) can swim upstream all the way to the GB. And if no Corporate veil exists, because the WTBS screwed up the lines of authority and the paperwork, individual elders can be held repsonible for what goes on in the KH. It won't take long for a mass rebellion to take place if elders figure out that whatever they have can be taken away in court because they did something they were ordered to do.
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3rdgen
JeffT, You got it buddy! What Elder wants to have to go BK because he's got to pay for defending/loosing a lawsuit. I'll bet the wife and kids would go ballistic if they lost their home, car, and other assets to old sister blind who slipped on the ice at the KH. Etc. etc......
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Doubting Bro
Really is anyone shocked? As soon as they fought against the WTS, their fate as JWs was sealed.
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rip van winkle
The corruption is from the tippy tops of the Org.
When I first read about Menlo Park and the lawsuit I was shocked.
I really had no idea about the money laundering (that's what it is).
How brilliant was it to come up with a scheme to use tax-free donations, then turn around and make a non-taxable profit by lending $$$ + interest to refub KH's and then retain the title to the Hall!!!!!!!
They are unscrupulous.
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3rdgen
RVW, I agree with your post. In this case, the WTS tried to force the Elders/officers of the Menlo Park congregation/corp. to take on the debt of a remodel loan they didn't want. Why didn't they want it? Because all they needed to do is clean the carpet and seats at a cost of a few hundred $.
The WT$ wanted them to take on a loan of about $40,000 for materials that they buy for pennys on the dollar. The proverbial $500.00 toilet seat that is not technically money laundering because it's already tax free. What it becomes is a COMPULSARY DONATION back to the society. THEN the WT$ becomes a leinholder on the title. Instead of the local congregation owning the hall, the WT$ takes title.
This land had appreciated to about 2,000.000.00 because it is smack dab in the middle of the Silicon Valley. There was NO WAY the WT$ was going to let some poor, mostly Black, cong keep that jucy property. In this case the remodel was simply an excuse to get control of the TITLE so they could sell it underneath them and pocket the profit. (also tax free)
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flipper
Great suggestions by Blindnomore in my opinion. And as Mrs. Jones states if this news has gotten out and travelled all the way to Rocklin and beyond in California and across the United States - in my opinion , not only do those elders who were DFed have a case against the WT society for embezzlement of their Kingdom hall- they also have a case for slander and defamation of their good names and character !
I agree with Blindnomore- go AFTER the WT society's ass ! Look , every ex-JW needs to understand a basic fact - these weiner WT society topdogs do NOT respond to civil tactics . They'll just blow you off , believe me, I've been there. The only thing that will grab their attention is the threat of a lawsuit written in uncompromising terms by us, our attorneys - grabbing them by the jugular vein and by US taking the power and control stick back away from them ! You cannot be intimidated by them. The minute the WT topdogs see an inactive or EX-JW back down, are timid, or gives up due to frustration - then the WT topdogs regain and seize the power and control stick back from us. We cannot let this happen regarding Menlo Park. These good men that Balaamsass described who were maliciously DFed , scorned, and currently are being slandered - deserve a hell of a lot better than this. As does EVERYBODY who the WT society has screwed over.
Several years back I won my appeal when elders tried to DF me in absentia. Not only did they NOT have a good case against me ( no evidence ) but I threatened a lawsuit with a letter from my attorney to them. Try to understand - if they play mean, you have to play mean back. That is the way of the world of which we are living in. Believe me- WT leaders are more " worldly " than any of us ever were. And not in a good, honest way.
I call out to anyone here who has information that will assist these abused Menlo Park elders to assist them in their legal fight by supplying ANY information to their legal team regarding criminally, dishonest WT methods. If Rick Simons could take on the WT society essentially by proving their dishonest and negligent child abuse policies - what would stop a good attorney skilled in business law , embezzlements, fraud cases, and money laundering cases from exposing the WT society in this criminal fashion as well ? I think it can be done. But the ducks have to get set in a row first and foremost with top notch attorneys - then the WT coverups can be ripped off like a bandaid exposing deeper cuts. O.K. End of my rant
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rip van winkle
Yes 3rdgen. But what is also so repugnant is the way the three elders were removed and how
Elder Cobb was made to look like a thief before the congregation!!!
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flipper
Important thread, BTTT, Peace out, Mr. Flipper