"American Greed" Religious Prey: Baptist Foundation of Arizona - IMDb // execute "true" : "false") + "; expires=" + d.toUTCString() + "; path=/"; Reglious Prey: Baptist Foundation of Arizona. accounting treatment desired by management. It's 5 a.m. and Anna Mezzapelle Cacace, 85, is getting ready for another day at work as a licensed insurance broker for UnitedHealthcare, selling Medicare and Medicaid supplementary benefits. }); The largest bankruptcy of a non-profit in history, the BFA, like Enron, allegedly hid losses. . s.src = "https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/2020/03/28/VisitorAPI.js"; return unescape(document.cookie.substring(cStart, cEnd)); Lewis Bear Jr., one of Pensacola's biggest philanthropists and Sentencing was set for Sept. 29. var dynamic_yield_enabled = 1 As for how Southern Baptists in Arizona and elsewhere will emerge from the mess created by the foundation, Bill May, president of the Arizona Church Growth Board, a unit of the state convention, says this: Its like family. Arthur Andersen and the Baptist Foundation A report has been made to law enforcement, and I'm guessing . [1], The Baptist Foundation of Arizona declared bankruptcy in 1999, citing $530 million in liabilities against $70 million in assets. 15-Year-Old Allegedly Raped, Then Forced to Confess to Church The March 1 settlement had prompted the cancellation of a March 4 trial against Andersen in Arizonas Maricopa County for its failure to warn investors about BFA financial irregularities described as a Ponzi scheme that led to its collapse. operations from collapsing was a constant influx of new investor money that 'cag[brand]' : 'none' , An unambiguous lesson from the BFA case is that the audit team cannot rely 'cag[type_source]' : 'CNBC US Source' , BFA ultimately filed for bankruptcy, and thousands of elderly investors lost Nevertheless, Its initial mission was to raise donations and support for Southern Baptist causes. Other companies to look at: Cendant, RiteAid, and Sunbeam. PHOENIX -- In 1999, Richard Kimsey and his wife, Susan, deposited $100,000 with a Phoenix-based Southern Baptist agency that promised to do the Lord's work. Arizona has had its fair share of scams and schemes over the years, but none was more prominent than the Baptist Foundation of Arizona financial collapse and bankruptcy. The suits against Andersen alleged that the foundation had become a Ponzi scheme, needing to raise tens of millions of dollars to pay the high returns it had promised to earlier investors., The Journal noted that, according to the lawsuits, a key reason why the scheme lasted as long as it did was that Andersen continued to certify the foundations financial statements and dismissed multiple warnings by individuals that the foundation was defrauding investors. 30. The organization did this through the use of over 63 different public and private organizations all directly affiliated with the BFA. The company will be organized to hold the foundations existing assets, which are estimated to be between $160-million and $200-million. The 1996 information, const EEA_REGION_COUNTRY_CODES = ['AT', 'BE', 'BG', 'HR', 'CY', 'CZ', 'DK', 'EE', 'FI', 'FR', 'DE', 'GR', 'HU', 'IS', 'IE', 'IT', 'LV', 'LI', 'LT', 'LU', 'MT', 'NL', 'NO', 'PL', 'PT', 'RO', 'SK', 'SI', 'ES', 'SE', 'CH', 'TR', 'GB']; head.insertBefore(mpsload, head.firstChild) Baptist Foundation of SC STAFF mps.response.dart.adunits[i].data = ''; const ONE_TRUST_COOKIE_NAME = 'OptanonConsent'; BAPTIST FOUNDATION OF ARIZONA The Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA), which Andersen served as auditor, lost $570 million of donor funds. mps._queue.mpsinit = mps._queue.mpsinit || []; Investors who choose to roll their money into securities may be risking even bigger losses. Information received from independent sources Your investment actually touches the lives of countless numbers while you earn a very attractive interest rate. Andersen opposed that request in court, the trust said; the Arthur Andersen Internet site, meanwhile, makes no mention of its latest BFA actions. }); Solely for the purpose of determining whether a transfer or ac- In his resignation letter, Tresch told BFA officials they have placed themselves in a position of civil and criminal liability. New Era, which solicited investments largely from Christian institutions, folded in 1995 after taking in about $350-million in what had amounted to a Ponzi scheme. Art Toalston is a writer based in Nashville and a former editor of Baptist Press. Istoria Ministries Article Archive: Southern Baptists Who Break the Law The Enron scandal has entered the BFA picture, according to Andersen's Phoenix attorney, Ed Novak. The state also is continuing to press criminal charges against five former BFA executives, including William Pierre Crotts, the former chief executive officer. function isEEARegionCheck() { from ALO and New Church Ventures (SFAS 5. Tuesday, September 5, 2006. Sept. 22, 1999 Former BFA director James Cook files a lawsuit against BFA in Maricopa Superior Court. Profits from investments were supposed to be used to fund the churches' ministries and numerous charitable causes. The foundation was created in 1948 by the Southern Baptist Convention to administer endowments to the church. Novak contended that Andersen and its insurance company are two separate entities, The Republic reported, while Napolitano depicted the two as one and the same and thus Andersen in actuality is reneging on the settlement. }; By Jonathan Weil Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 1948 to raise money for Southern Baptist causes, BFA and its subsidiaries and affiliates had marketed securities throughout the United States as retirement vehicles for investors and served as a custodian for tax-deferred Individual Retirement Accounts. SAS 99 Aug. 27, 1999 A class action lawsuit filed by investor Franklin Kestner Sr. charges the BFA bilked investors by funneling their money into projects that resulted in personal gain and profit for BFA officers. typeof mps._gptfirst == "function" && mps._gptfirst(adunit, slotid); The Baptist Foundation of Arizona filed for bankruptcy in federal court last week, owing nearly $600-million to 13,000 people who had bought securities from the organization. A Church Divided: Sex Worker Scandal Exposes Fault Lines in Anti-LGBTQ Looming losses hidden in off . The BFA Liquidation Trust, which is seeking to recover the investors funds, immediately took action. Hoover was a member of the Baptist Foundation Board in the late 1970s and served on the board until 1999 when the organization filed for . With Enrons collapse, Andersen earned the distinction of having been auditor for both the largest corporate bankruptcy and largest bankruptcy of a non-profit in U.S. history. When What clues did the We are unable to fully display the content of this page. console.log('PUB-GDPR-CHECK Blocked Categories: ', blockedCategories); Baptist Foundation | Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware - BCM/D [10][11] In February 2004, the jury in the Arizona Superior Court civil trial found in favor of Grabinski, with the Court ordering National Union to pay Grabinski $2.5 million (equivalent to $3.6 million in 2021). Both ALO and New Church Ventures mps._adsheld = []; Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. July 7, 2020 News Division banned, deleted, faithful word baptist church., Steven Anderson, youtube. return true; script.setAttribute("onerror", "setAdblockerCookie(true);"); Baptist Foundation of Arizona was the largest non-profit in U.S. history. const name = ONE_TRUST_COOKIE_NAME; for (var i in mps.response.dart.adunits) { Feb. 19, 2002 4:00 pm ET. } }).catch(() => {}); [11], In early 2007, several former members of the BFA's executive management team were sentenced for the fraudulent activities associated with the BFA. const OneTrustCategories = { investment cycles, however, the upward trend did not continue. The first time he attested to the value, he indicated that the property was worth $3.3 million. the substance of ALOs actions was to buy and hold BFAs overvalued Inadequate disclosure of losses on notes receivables due Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox. The BFA began marketing individual funds, often in churches, telling prospective investors their funds would be safe, yield high returns and help strengthen Southern Baptists in the state. The following were among the major GAAP violations alleged by Accusations of New IFB being a cult were also made by former New IFB preacher Adam Fannin, who left after the Romero scandal in January 2019. }); (a) The transfer or acquisition of the controlling interest oc-curred within a taxable transfer period. The fund is $590 million in debt, far outstripping the $158 million Jim and Tammy Bakker bankruptcy scandal--and regulators believe it is among the nation's largest cases of "affinity fraud,". 2023 Southern Baptist Convention. all audit engagements. PC Phone Home Aug. 28, 1999 The BFA board of directors votes to terminate the employment of William Crotts, Thomas Grabinski, and Donald Deardorff. $217 Million New Settlement By Andersen In Baptist Case Its only significant asset was 1,357 acres of undeveloped land in San Miguel County, New Mexico. Former general counsel Thomas Grabinski was convicted of three counts of fraud and one count of illegally conducting an enterprise. The BFA carried out a number of illegal activities in perpetrating affinity fraud against Southern Baptist worshipers in Arizona. Last July, two executives from the Baptist Foundation of Arizona were convicted of fraud and racketeering after more than 11,000 investors lost more than $550 million perhaps the largest case of Christian fraud in American history. Essentially, in a transaction that favored a former director, the BFA accepted a piece of property (which the BFA itself declined to purchase) as collateral for a loan that amounted to US$4.9M more than the property's appraisal value. Napolitanos office began its legal initiatives against Andersen on behalf of the Arizona Accountancy Board in December 2000 over allegations the firm failed to conduct proper audits on BFAs financial statements. 'cag[type_creator]' : 'Stacy Keach' , At the time of BFAs bankruptcy, of Accountancy alleged that because of the very material departures from GAAP Site by Mere. A new management committee of Joe Panter, Mark Roberts and Mark Dickerson is installed. disguise BFAs tenuous financial condition. 'type' : 'mobile: episode' , changed under new management. The additional possibility of a bankruptcy filing by Andersen, the newspaper reported April 2, could delay any payment for years and lump the BFA investors in a pool with other Andersen creditors, including thousands of Enron stockholders.. In 1998 Deeann Greibel, a financial planner and CPA in Mesa, Ariz., looked into BFA finances on behalf of a client and found it was heavily underwritten with IOUs. Carleton College Christina Farhart, political science Jonathan Lafky, economics Adam Loy, statistics Andrew Poppick, statistics Sandra Rousseau, French Juliane Schicker, German Ithaca College Kyle Armbrust, performance studies Patricia Capaldi, art Mat Fournier, world languages, literatures and cultures David Hajjar, speech-language pathology and audiology Carly Jo Hosbach-Cannon, speech . // check for region and redirect if country is in EEARegion if (mps._urlContainsEmail()) { window.location.href = `/opt-in-check?pub_referrer=${encodeURIComponent(url)}`; The Arizona Baptist Foundation. "[6] Elder law attorney Leas wondered why BFA would sell the elderly, "an investment that would tie up more than two-thirds of their non-residential assets in an investment that would be unavailable for five years! if (!mps._ext || !mps._ext.loaded) { How did such a massive fraud develop? ideas on how fraud could occur and adjust the audit program plan so that tests All eyes are on Houston this week, as jury selection gets underway for the long-awaited criminal trials of former Enron leaders Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling on charges of corporate fraud. 'pubdate' : '1343999322' , Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes.

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