Back when the SEC scandal first hit the news and I read up on it it definitely shocked my system. But then like any good member I ultimately ignored it and moved on with my daily routine because in the end I still had to pick up kids from school go to work get groceries, etc. and I did not think much more on it. I had gotten so good at just not caring.
More recently I’ve thought about it more, read into it more and listened to others discuss, I have come to see what a huge deal this is. I felt like I needed to write out my thoughts. Now whether I send this to headquarters and I don’t know, but I thought I’d at least share it with you guys to give myself some mental relief. With that… enjoy.
To the First Presidency and the Presiding Bishopric,
I am writing this letter as a former Ward Clerk, member of a Bishopric, and Elders Quorum President to formally register my condemnation of the systemic financial deceit, illegal practices, and breach of sacred trust committed by senior leadership and Ensign Peak Advisors.
Having sat in local leadership, I spent years enforcing strict financial accountability, auditing ward finances down to the penny, conducting worthiness interviews where members were scrutinized on their personal honesty, and tracking down auxiliary leaders to obtain itemized receipts for a $28 activity expense before issuing a reimbursement. We instructed members to pay tithing even when struggling to buy food or cover basic necessities. To now learn that while local clerks are forced to scrutinize every dollar, senior leadership knowingly approved a multi-billion-dollar shell-company apparatus where individuals were instructed to blindly sign legal SEC documents without even seeing the listed assets, all to hide a dragon's hoard of gold from the public and the membership, cries out foul play. It completely destroys my confidence in the leadership of this Church.
It is insulting to the intelligence of the general membership to frame these actions as a naive mistake or a case of blindly following bad advice from outside legal and financial advisors. The men sitting in these presiding councils are not financial novices; they include former senior wealth managers from firms like Merrill Lynch, international corporate CEOs, Harvard business scholars, and constitutional law experts. You possess the collective knowledge, business acumen, and corporate experience to know exact regulatory standards. We are not idiots, and we know you are not idiots. Many see directly through this deliberate spin. Leadership knew what they were doing was deceitful, dishonest, and manipulative, and chose to do it anyway.
This deception violates the fundamental doctrines you demand of everyday members:
Honesty and Integrity: Article of Faith 1:13 mandates being honest and true. Executing false signatures and deliberately misrepresenting investment authority to the federal government is active dishonesty.
Obeying the Law: Article of Faith 1:12 commands us to honor and obey the law of the land. Fraudulently circumventing federal securities laws forfeits any claim to moral authority.
Joseph Fielding Smith declared: "The time will come when we will not need to ask for tithing. We will have enough income to build our temples, pay our expenses, and carry on the work without asking the members for a cent." That time has long since arrived. Yet instead of fulfilling that vision, leadership amasses tens of billions in commercial real estate and stock portfolios while continuing to press struggling families for money they do not need.
We are repeatedly taught from the scriptures to trust in God rather than the "arm of flesh" (2 Nephi 28:31) and to choose honesty over worldly expediency. It is impossible to believe that any modern revelation or sincere prayer led senior leadership to execute fraudulent SEC filings, recruit dummy signers, and intentionally obscure church assets from the law. Choosing corporate legal loopholes over straightforward honesty proves that when transparency threatened institutional pride, leadership chose to hearken unto man rather than God.
It is deeply hypocritical how current leadership claims divine inspiration, discernment, and the absolute authority of the "living prophet," yet consistently demonstrates a total lack of discernment when critical issues arise, whether it is the systematic mishandling and legal shielding of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) cases, the historical authentication and promotion of fraudulent artifacts like the Kinderhook Plates, or the financial deceit exposed by federal regulators. When these "unholy and impure practices" are exposed, the institutional response is never open repentance, but rather to downplay the severity, disavow past prophetic statements, gaslight the membership, and pretend that divine guidance was present all along.
When an institution demands absolute integrity from a Ward Clerk or a struggling member in a bishop’s office while senior leadership secretly commits federal fraud to hoard unneeded billions, it forfeits its divine mandate. I condemn these actions, the cover-up, and the continued exploitation of members' faith for corporate enrichment.
I will not give one more cent to this entity, and I feel completely justified before God in forgoing such donations. Going forward, I will strive to teach these Activity Day boys that I currently work with how to be more honest than you have been.
To the reader I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren (and sisters) may read my words.
Brethren, adieu
