MormonLeaks: LDS Church owns at least $32B in U.S. stock market

[accadacca]

(KUTV) — The LDS Church has U.S. stock market holdings valued of at least $32 billion according to information gathered from an independent website.

The church — officially titled The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — does not not publish the details of its finances, but the website MormonLeaks.io released information it says connects the church to 13 LLC companies that collectively owned the stocks at the end of 2017 and provides the collective value at $ 32,769,914,000. One of the financial reports was from 2015.

MormonLeaks wrote that each of the 13 companies have domains that are hosted by the LDS Church servers, that also hosts LDS.org and Mormon.org. "All of them were registered on July 21, 2016," according to MormonLeaks, that also provided a more technical explanation. It claimed there is little doubt the LLC domains are owned the church.

The information is taken -- MormonLeakes wrote Wednesday -- from forms required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for investment managers to deal with sums over $100 million. Those forms require business managers to be listed and MormonLeakes said that it attempted to contact all the managers of the LLCs, spoke to three of the 13 and one confirmed she was the business manager of the respective LLC. MormonLeaks said two men denied their connection to the respective LLC. That manager that confirmed the connection told MormonLeaks she could not answer if the LLC was owned by the Mormon Church.

MormonLeaks also claims each of the 13 LLC business managers listed correspond to a 2015 employee directory of the Mormon Church, obtained but not published by MormonLeaks.

KUTV sought comment from the LDS Church and was referred to a statement from MormonNewsroom released a week ago about the church's finances. It said in part: "While the vast majority of its financial resources comes from the tithes and offerings of Church members, the Church also holds business interests that help in accomplishing its mission." It also wrote, "These funds are added to Church reserves, which include stocks and bonds, taxable businesses, agricultural interests and commercial and residential property."

The LDS Church -- often called the Mormon Church -- declined further comment.

MormonLinks provided the names of the 13 LLC companies:

Ashmore Wealth Management LLT, valued at $1,918,532,000.00
Argyll Research LLC, valued at $446,327,000.00
Clifton Park Capital Management, LLC, valued at $880,518,000.00
Cortland Advisers LLC, valued at 2,177,742,000.00
Elkfork Partners LLC, valued at $3,687,774,000.00
Flinton Capital Management LLC, valued at $2,943,847,000.00
Glen Harbor Capital Management LLC, valued at $4,407,275,000.00
Green Valley Investors LLC, valued at $2,098,464,000.00
Meadow Creek Investment Management LLC, valued at $4,603,236,000.00
Neuburgh Advisers LLC, valued at $2,791,122,000.00
Riverhead Capital Management LLC, valued at $2,361,388,000.00
Tiverton Asset Management LLC, valued at $1,598,252,000.00
Tyers Asset Management, valued at $2,855,436,000.00
The companies have a combined value of $32,769,914,000.00.

It also provided a spreadsheet, available HERE in over 400 pages, or downloadable from this page of MormonLeaks, that lists the total value of the shares owned by the companies at the time of their most recent year-end filing.

MormonLeaks is a non-profit media organization that says it collects and publishes information about the LDS Church and says it seeks greater transparency from it. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the LDS Church has not disclosed its finances since 1959. According to an article by the LDS Church owned Deseret News, the church donates about $40 million annually to humanitarian causes. The church claimed approximately 16 million members in 2017. Members are required to pay 10 percent of their income to the church to remain in good standing.

KUTV recently profiled the men behind MormonLeaks.

The May 22, the LDS Church release with information pertaining to church finances said:

"The Church is not a financial institution or a commercial corporation. It has no other objective than preaching the gospel and inviting all to come unto Christ."

The LDS Church stated that a small portion of funds comes from its businesses.


http://kutv.com/news/local/mormonlea...ver-32-billion

[Iceaxe]

So the LDS Church is extremely wealthy... does that really come as a surprise to anyone? I could have told you this anytime over the past 50 years. FWIW - My mother was head of their accounting department for much of her life and would occasionally mention the church owns this or that. None of this is news to me and I doubt it's a major revelation to most of you.

[Sombeech]

There was this meme floating around a while ago trying to mock the church leaders for getting a "salary" of $130k, which turns out to be basic travel reimbursement and other accommodations for their busy travel schedule during the year.

These guys, retired millionaires, heads of a multi-multi billion dollar organization, are supposedly so corrupt that they were reimbursed $130k. Wow pulled the wool off of my eyes (eye roll)

[Iceaxe]

^^^Yes and No^^^

The big dogs in the church are also on the board of directors of the companies and corporations the church owns and they recieve a paycheck from said company.

For example Monson was also head of the Deseret News and received a big check from them along with several other companies.

If you think the heads of any church are not banking millions you're a fool.

[Sombeech]

Right, but they aren't getting a real salary from the church itself. They have their own businesses, retirements, investments.... the church reimburses them but it's not a salary.

[Iceaxe]

Right, but they aren't getting a real salary from the church itself. They have their own businesses, retirements, investments.... the church reimburses them but it's not a salary.

Wrong.... the church owns the business, and the business pays the salary. So the money is coming from the church, at least the way I look at it.

In Monson's case he was head of the Deseret News and he received a pay check from the D News, and the church owns the D news. Monson was also receiving a pay check from several other church owned companies. These pay checks did not come from Monson's personal business, retirements or investments. Monson might have also received money from personal investments, but he was also getting a direct pay check from a church owned company.

FWIW - Monson and the D News is just one situation I know a lot about because Monson was my mother's direct boss for the last 20 years that she worked.

[Rob L]

For what it's worth, and by comparison perhaps, the Church of England is purported to be the second-largest land-owner in the UK. After the Royal Family.

[Sombeech]

For what it's worth, and by comparison perhaps, the Church of England is purported to be the second-largest land-owner in the UK. After the Royal Family.

I had heard that it was Richard Branson of Virgin

[devo_stevo]

If we're honest, the church IS a business. If you don't believe me, try working with them on anything that requires them to spend money. I've worked on several building projects for the church including the Brigham City temple and the addition they did a few years ago to the student center at BYU-Idaho. It's tough to make money when working with them because there are so many companies trying to work with them that you've got a ton of people out there paying them to do the work.

Also, when you are called as an apostle, I'm pretty sure that you don't have the time any longer to work for someone else. I don't have any issues with the church paying them a salary to live on while running the church. Even if they have to give them a token position at one of their other businesses in order to pay them.

[Rob L]

I had heard that it was Richard Branson of Virgin

Small fry

[Sombeech]

Yes, the church is definitely a business, and a savvy one at that. I guess we should distinguish that the "salary" in the strict sense doesn't come from the tithing, but from financial investments. The church is very profitable from sources other than tithes and fast offerings.

There are thousands of literal employees of the church, each getting salaries and paychecks, but the "clergy" in general, does not, which is a distinguishing characteristic compared to most religious clergy.

[Scott Card]

There are thousands of literal employees of the church, each getting salaries and paychecks, but the "clergy" in general, does not, which is a distinguishing characteristic compared to most religious clergy.

This I can absolutely vouch for-- never a cent! But I love it....

[DiscGo]

There are thousands of literal employees of the church, each getting salaries and paychecks, but the "clergy" in general, does not, which is a distinguishing characteristic compared to most religious clergy.

After MormonLeaks released the information about the 130k "living wage" the church updated Handbook 2 to specify that the LDS Church does not have a paid local clergy.

[uintafly]

For what it's worth, and by comparison perhaps, the Church of England is purported to be the second-largest land-owner in the UK. After the Royal Family.

I have heard, though I don't if it is true, that the LDS church is the single larges landholder in Utah, Idaho and Florida.

I'm with Ice, if you didn't realize they were rolling in it, you haven't been paying attention. Organized religion is a sweet gig if you can get it. It doesn't bother me any since they aren't taking my money, but I may have a tough time sending 10%. But I am greedy.

[devo_stevo]

Yes, the church is definitely a business, and a savvy one at that. I guess we should distinguish that the "salary" in the strict sense doesn't come from the tithing, but from financial investments. The church is very profitable from sources other than tithes and fast offerings.

There are thousands of literal employees of the church, each getting salaries and paychecks, but the "clergy" in general, does not, which is a distinguishing characteristic compared to most religious clergy.

All very true. I've never been paid a dime to fulfill my duties. I'm good with that.

[double moo]

All churches are just buinesses dealing in power and money. They go about getting the money through differing methods, but selling hope is the main business strategy.

I have a bitch with churches not paying taxes, getting breaks on municipal fees etc... If you want to join a club go for it, but the rest of the public should not help foot the bill. Especially when the organization has the means to pay their portion. Why should Axe work his ass off to build a business and provide jobs then have to pay a large percentage of his earning to the government while a huge coporation operating in the same community doesn't have to meet the same criteria.

We see these memes about the mega church pastors asking for cash for a new jet, or having to clean thier 20,000 seat chapel and think people must be crazy to keep handing over their hard earned cash. The larger more sophisticated churches just do it on a more sincere level. And making memes about them makes us bad people. We are all basically equal in our beliefs... there are some 4,000 recognized religions - most think that 3,999 of them are false, I throw in the final .025 percent (one tenth of one quarter of one percent - virtually negligible by most standards) and concede that 4,000 are false! your math may differ...

[double moo]

Oh, I forgot... My Father worked for over 30 years for the LDS Church building Temples around the world. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the south pacific and had a great childhood with lots of opportunities to experience different cultures and become a well rounded young adult...

Thank you for paying your tithing to help suppot my upbringing and travels!

[zurgalay]

Hi there. Time to revive this thread. What about trading in Islam?

[MurrayYvonne]

Hey there! I'm happy to help out. So, to answer your question about trading being haram in Islam, it's not necessarily a black and white issue. Islam actually encourages trade and commerce, but there are certain things to watch out for. Basically, you want to make sure you're not engaging in any shady practices like charging interest or being dishonest in your transactions. So, when it comes to if is trading haram in islam, as long as you're being fair and ethical, trading is totally fine. Hope that clears things up for you :)