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Relatives threatened to 'destroy' Crouch granddaughter
Writer: Teri Sforza | 22 May 2012 (updated 21 August 2013) | www.ocregister.com
We've been detailing charges of "extravagant" spending at the world's largest Christian broadcaster -- allegations leveled by a granddaughter against her grandfather, grandmother, uncle and aunt.
We've been detailing IRS codes and compliance reviews and internal memos, but the drama over money at Trinity Broadcasting Network is at heart a family drama, with all the attendant emotions of betrayal, anger and, presumably, heartache.
Paul and Jan Crouch founded TBN back in 1973 — God spoke to Paul as he was driving on MacArthur Boulevard, he has said on air — and he promised to put up his last dollars to make it work. As soon as he made that sacrifice, the donations poured in, he said -- and the prosperity gospel TBN preaches has become more wildly successful than he ever imagined. Trinity brings in nearly $200 million a year and has amassed net assets of nearly $1 billion, according to its latest tax returns. It is "Jesus's only network," Jan Crouch has said, and has employed extended members of the Crouch family clan.
Until recently.
Brittany Koper, the granddaughter at the root of the current ruckus, is the daughter of Paul Crouch Jr. -- the founder's namesake. After becoming Trinity's finance director last summer, she tried to correct what she saw as financial excesses, she said in a 180-page declaration filed in Orange County Superior Court -- objecting to, among many other things, the free-spending ways of her uncle Matthew Crouch and his wife, Laurie.
Her attempts were not well-received by others in her family, by her account. Soon, her grandfather told her "that Janice and Matthew Crouch 'want your heads,' referring to the biblical account of John the Baptist's beheading by King Herod after John reproved Herod for certain transgressions," Koper's declaration reads.
Grandmother Jan Crouch accused her of "biting the hand that feeds you," and told her that she was a "naive little girl," the declaration says. Her grandmother told her "that I must either do as I was told without asking questions or find myself 'out on your ass,' director Matthew Crouch likewise confronted Michael Koper (Koper's husband) and I and said he would 'destroy' us in response to the specific financial improprieties concerning Matthew Crouch's compensation that had been reported by me."
Koper was fired shortly thereafter, and those closest to her went down with her, according to her account. "Each of the primary individuals who had supported my short-lived efforts as director of finance to reform TBN's unlawful financial practices was subsequently terminated by TBN in retaliation for our stand and objection, including my father Paul Crouch, Jr, my husband Michael Koper, my number two in personnel, and myself," her declaration says.
The uncle with whom she apparently had the greatest conflict is now essentially in charge of the station: Matthew Crouch.
An email from Koper to her Uncle Matt Crouch in August took him gently to task for failing to file receipts for purchases he made.
"Hi Matthew," it reads. "I finished putting together the forms for missing receipts that I spoke to you about yesterday. According to IRS guidelines, every purchase that TBN makes must have a ministry purpose. If you see the attached, I've listed the date of the purchase, name and location of the vendor as well as the amount. Please fill in the box next to the purchase explaining the ministry purpose in as much detail as possible and then sign the bottom. If there are some that you're not really sure about or you may need help with let me know and I can give you a few IRS 'buzz words' to throw in there (but basically, use the words 'church' and 'ministry' as much as possible). ::SMILE::
"In the future I'll have one of these prepared for each of your credit card statements so that our records are complete and the auditors don't ask any questions."
Uncle Matt did not return the smile. The forms she wanted him to fill out were pages and pages long.
"There isn't a chance in you know where, that I didn't turn in that many receipts," he responded. "I suggest someone start looking for them there in accounting or contact the vendors for duplicates. The ministry purpose will be written on them!"
Koper's declaration says,
"It is an understatement to say that I encountered tremendous resistance, particularly by TBN directors -- and most particularly by my uncle, director Matthew Crouch, who I believed was guilty of the most glaring and dangerous violations of law concerning excess benefit transactions, kickbacks, self-dealing, and outright fraudulent conduct."
She particularly objected to $50 million transferred from TBN to Matthew Crouch's Gener8Xion film company over a decade, she continued. She pointed to invoices for $1.2 million to Gener8Xion "related to the non-existed 3D Jesus movie," as well as invoices for $19,527 sought by Matthew Crouch and his wife "to renovate one of their many company provided homes."
But it wasn’t just her uncle and aunt. The Aug. 30 memo she and her husband wrote to grandfather Paul Crouch Sr. — detailing their concerns upon taking the jobs of finance director and secretary –objected to
"the ownership and personal use of TBN’s luxury jets, TBN directors setting their own interest rates on money they were personally investing with TBN, wrongfully reporting nonexistent donations for corporations, excessive daily 'business' meals, the fact that TBN was not reporting director Matthew Crouch's income on its tax returns to avoid disclosure of his affiliation with TBN while Matthew Crouch was receiving money from a film company through TBN, the free 'parsonages' that TBN provided to all of its directors and other officers without proper reporting…fictitious 'rent' that TBN paid to TBN directors for the non-existent use of their house, and several other matters," the declaration says.