The following story appeared on ex-jw.com ,before you read it I want to add my own testimony .Some years ago there was an announcement at the Kingdlom Hall to donate money for the construction of a new Kingdom Hall ,many brothers and sisters donated their life savings and some considerable amounts .Ten years later no Kingdom Hall and the money has long since being transfered to the Watchtower's accounts where it earns them a nice interest .Amongst these brothers were also elderly ones that could have used this money for their retirement.Now the story :"
"I am writing this article to share my personal experiences and to disclose to all current and former Jehovah's Witnesses that the potential for the Watchtower organization to take advantage of their elderly parents clearly exists. I am specifically referring to the handling of family inheritances, last wills and testaments, estates, family trusts, and the disposition of property and cash assets.
I'll describe my family's present situation to demonstrate exactly what I mean:
Our 82-year-old father lived alone after my mother passed away. He has always been proud of his being independent and self-sufficient. That is until a so-called "Pioneer" set foot into his home. This "Pioneer minister" attended the Pioneer School at Bethel, and for a while he actually did some Pioneer service in other countries. After Mother died, our father was cared for primarily by this Pioneer (a representative of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society). That Pioneer's only responsibility was to look after and care for my father's personal needs in exchange for room and board and meals.
Although we were not notified of his condition, shortly afterwards our father started to show early signs of Alzheimer's disease. As is often typical in cases involving this particular diagnosis, his overall health began to degrade. In spite of the fact that this so-called "Pioneer" and his fellow elders in my father's congregation knew how to contact us, they made sure that we were deliberately kept in the dark about my father's true condition.
Even though we had a need to know, those elders and the Pioneer made a conscious decision to not keep us informed - in spite of my father's advanced age and physical condition. They knew he was already frail, and his mental condition was diminishing with the onset of Alzheimer's.
In fact, they tried to influence him to believe that we did not care about his well-being. The Pioneer made statements to our father on a regular basis that implied that we did not care for him as he did because we "resided in another state." This even extended to the congregation's elders because they would not allow our father to talk to me or have any other type of contact with us. They told him that if he continued to have contact with me (or vice versa) he "was not going to make it into Paradise to be with my deceased mother again."
My sister, who was also shunned by the elders, was able to maintain an open dialogue with our father by telephone calls on a weekly basis. There were times when the Pioneer simply refused to pass our calls to our father. We found that rather strange behavior and wondered if he was hiding the possibility that something might be wrong.
All of these factors resulted in our father being totally isolated from his own children. Limiting our access allowed them to take advantage of an elderly person unable to make many of his own decisions. Because of his declining health, my father was susceptible to their influences and their ability to control his thoughts and decisions. They also used their appearance of having "religious authority" to create undue influence over him.
It is a fact: a rapidly growing segment of the population are older persons with severe medical and psychiatric problems that affect their mental and cognitive abilities. Elderly persons like our father, who has been a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses for over 45 years, are even more vulnerable because they have been exposed to brainwashing techniques used by both the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and the elders at the local Kingdom Hall.
We discovered that they managed to deceive our father into relinquishing his house (which he had totally paid off) and all of his other assets. While we were reviewing his savings account, we discovered that his bank account had been transferred to a new account bearing the name of the Pioneer. My father's stock certificates had also been cashed out.
Somehow the Pioneer convinced our father to sign a new "Power of Attorney." The Pioneer also coerced Dad into buying him a new automobile, using my father's perfectly good car as a trade-in plus another $17,000 in cash for the purchase. This was in spite of the fact that our father was not permitted to drive; it was clearly unsafe for a man of his age and condition to drive.
We also discovered a number of IOUs belonging to the elders of the local Kingdom Hall. Money owed to our father and one of the IOUs were used for the construction of a new Kingdom Hall.
The Elders were aware of the Pioneer's actions and their own involvement while they unscrupulously took advantage of our father's finances.
Shocked and disgusted, we discovered that within the past six months all of our father's assets had been depleted. The so-called "Pioneer" made himself the sole beneficiary of my father's newly revised will. We were never informed about the execution of our father's new Last Will and Testament and no disclosure of its existence was ever made to us. In fact, we later discovered that all pertinent original legal documents were taken by that "Pioneer" and he has refused to return them to us.
It would have been obvious to anyone that our father was not sound of mind and body. We know that he would have never relinquished ALL of his assets to unrelated persons the way they claimed he did, especially to anyone unknown to him - if he had not been coerced by the elders and Pioneer. They took advantage of him and were clearly legally negligent in regards to dealing with his declining health.
Our poor father and mother (now deceased) lost their entire life savings to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Nothing remains. We cannot even afford to pay his medical bills. All of this hardship brought on our family is due to the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses being encouraged to take advantage of elderly members who have substantial financial resources.
The fact is that Jehovah's Witnesses have a history of using their religious position to unduly influence their elderly members.
We consulted with two attorneys who will pursue this case of possible criminal exploitation and fraud. We are waiting for a report from the Police Department of Palm Bay, Florida and the State Attorney who specializes on the protection, well-being, and rights of the elderly. My sister and I have decided that we will carry on legal action against those involved as long as necessary. We will assure you that the Jehovah's Witnesses involved will not get away with this. Nothing they did should stand up in court - everything they did appears to have been fraudulent and deliberate.
I want to emphasize that my sole purpose in submitting this article is not just to disclose my own family's experiences. I also want to inform current or former Jehovah's Witnesses who may have gone through similar situations involving their elderly parents, that there is hope - that justice can be achieved by going through the courts.
We'd also invite you to share your experiences. We know that we are not alone - certain that there must be many other cases similar to ours. If those of us who have been victims of the Watchtower's exploitation of the elderly unite together - and take legal action against them - we can expose the vile practices of the abusive cult known as "Jehovah's Witnesses."