Circuit Court of Appeals. Roger G Clarke, Harindra de Silva and Steven Thorley. I will never claim to speak for Jesus, but it's beyond clear that the leaders of this church never have either whether it's claiming God called the Native Americans Lamanites from Israel, that dark skin is a curse from God, or that God changed his mind in just 3.5 years on treating LGBT members as apostates. Not only is that statement simply untrue, it is beyond self serving for a man who knows the enormous amount of cash they are sitting on to tell those who do not have the means that they have to pay tithing in order to not just get out of poverty, but to enter the temple which they are told is essential to their salvation. The regulator says the Church's investment manager "went to great lengths" to avoid disclosures. According to its first 2020 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed months after allegations by whistleblower David Nielsen and his twin brother, Lars, made headlines, Ensign Peaks value was reported at $37.8 billion in stocks and mutual funds. Put another way, the man who claims to be the lone prophet of God on this Earth is telling people in the poorest areas of the Earth that without giving the church (worth $124 billion in this one investment fund alone) 10% of their income they not only will never get out of poverty, but they will be denied exaltation for eternity. So how does the church go from claiming $2 billion in donations over 34 years (which is overwhelmingly based on service hours that are converted to donation amounts) to $1 billion per year as church officials are claiming just months later? Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., which oversees a $32 billion equities portfolio for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will pay $4 million to settle regulatory claims that the money. And do not forget that Prophet Joseph F Smith said this about tithing at the 1907 General Conference: "Furthermore, I want to say to you, we may not be able to reach it right away, but we expect to see the day when we will not have to ask you for one dollar of donation for any purpose, except that which you volunteer to give of your own accord, because we will have tithes sufficient in the storehouse of the Lord to pay everything that is needful for the advancement of the kingdom of God." Although the stories broke in 2019, the continued coverage and fallout was included among the top 25 religion stories of 2020 by the Religion News Association. This is yet another rationale that is contradicted by their past actions, and they are only saying it to try and pacify members who are waking up to realize that this church is not only untrue, but not good, either. And the church claims to give $1 billion a year to "humanitarian causes and charities," yet they do not give details. Steven Thorley Nielsen was also someone who had experience on Wall Street, working at a major New York hedge fund for five years and obtaining an MBA at UCLA before EPA recruited him in 2010 as an investment portfolio manager. But its lawyers go to great lengths in challenging Huntsmans lawsuit including filing rare financial documents under seal and blocking information from public view on others to show that no actual tithing went into those transactions. That should not surprise anyone considering the way they do accounting of these donations. , UT Previous President for Ensign Peak Advisors Inc (801)240-3053. He wrote that it avoided having a compliance officer between 1997 and 2015. Ensign Peak also has at least $1.3 billion in shares of oil and gas companies, even after dumping 44% of its stock in Exxon Mobil early in 2020. Overview. ReligionUnplugged.com reporters sent emails and made phone calls to Nielsen and his lawyers as well as to members and staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to ask about the status of the memorandum and a schedule for any possible hearings in Washington. In concert with coauthors Steven Thorley and Harin de Silva they have published material over the years about the use of derivatives in investment management, low volatility portfolios, constraints and the fundamental law of active management, long/short portfolio construction, pure factor portfolios and efficient factor investing. Not only is the church being dishonest by leading the church members to believe that they areWe are not a wealthy people but we are good people, and we share what we have" as Elder Andersen said in 2018, they are taking active steps to obfuscate their financial dealings in order to keep members thinking the church needs their money. Harindra de Silva. Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) Analytic Investors. "We allege that the LDS Church's investment manager, with the Church's knowledge, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing the Church's investments, depriving the Commission and the investing public of accurate market information," Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. This is a true 'liar liar pants on fire' moment for the church, and the leaders of the First Presidency are all in on it. Since that time, 13 quarterly reports have been filed in full accordance with SEC requirements.". View Roger Clarke's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. No organization that truly exists to help every child of God would create over a dozen shell companies to make sure the world can never find out what they have, and no organization that tells you that you will be eternally separated from your family unless you keep giving 10% to them is worth your devotion. As we've pointed out in countless pages on this site and others, the church will never be true. Foreign accounts: EPA now admits having foreign accounts, after denying it under oath for 10+ years: Mr. Nielsens prior submissions demonstrated that EPA has falsely denied under oath each year since at least 2007 that EPA has long had foreign bank and investment accounts, estimated to exceed $9 billion and thus EPA is liable for FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) penalties of more than $2 billion. Keywords: factor investing, rules-based portfolios, quantitative portfolio management, Suggested Citation: Religion Unplugged reached EPA's managing director Roger Clark by phone on Monday, offering to explain key parts of this story and to ask questions for EPA to give a response. Ensign Peak Advisors, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints multibillion-dollar investment fund, has gone from operating nearly incognito 19 months ago to facing an uncomfortably hot spotlight. This story makes me angry because we have all seen and heard of countless examples where families skip buying food or paying their bills to make sure they pay their tithing, because without it the church cuts off their membership to the temple. EMEA +44 20 7330 7500. We believe at some point the Savior will return. Originally I didn't plan on doing a write-up because it was all happening during the holidays and I just did not have time to write about it, but this past weekend's Wall Street Journal article really articulated what is so frustrating about the church's lack of transparency on finances, and what we've noted when looking at a lot of other troubling topics of Mormonism - they simply do not trust their members with honest, complete information on their history or finances. As of June, the funds shares in five Big Tech companies Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook were worth nearly $9 billion, or 18% of its total value. With the 7% annual return they are getting, they could fund the entire church (approximately $5 billion a year) and still have well over $2 billion left over each year. Roger G. Clarke If $124 billion in an investment portfolio is not enough, why not share with members what they've accomplished and let them know what the goal is if the church is truly as 'transparent as they know how to be.' When it does happen, we dont have any idea whether financial assets will have any value at all. Along with the quarterly SEC filings, EPA appears to be more recognizable as an institutional investor in public companies now. Its initial filing revealed EPA had $38 billion in stocks and mutual fundsat the end of 2019, including $1.5 billion in Apple and Microsoft. Neither Clarke nor other officials would provide The Journal with details on the size of the churchs annual budget or how much money goes to Ensign Peak. Contact Us While on academic leaves from BYU, Professor Thorley served as the interim Research Director for Analytic Investors, a quant fund based in Los Angeles, and for Ensign Peak Advisors in Salt Lake City. 212.744.6825, Research Coordinator Nobody knows when, Clarke told the newspaper. Ensign Peak is a huge investor in iconic technology stocks. Thank you for supporting local journalism. Back to the article: "The church cant predict when the next 2008 is going to take place, Christopher Waddell, second counselor in the faiths Presiding Bishopric, told The Journal. The complaint added that Roger Clarke, the president of Ensign, claimed that the investment branch collected the funds in preparation for "the second coming of Christ." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. To give a better overview of this topic, we're going to refer to the Salt Lake Tribune's coverage of the recent Wall Street Journal article by Peggy Fletcher Stack, because it covers some of the quotes from Mormon leaders along with Ensign Peak about the fund without getting as deep into the weeds as the WSJ article does. If we truly believe that the world is going to fall into chaos before the second coming of Christ, does the church really believe that stocks and bonds are going to hold value then? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' has a $100 billion portfolio, according to a 13F filing. Nielsen referred to a March 2013 meeting with the firms then-president, Roger Clarke, in which he heard Clarke outline $1.4 billion in spending on City Creek over five years and a one-time payment of $600 million to Beneficial Life, a struggling church-owned insurance company. A post shared by Scottie Scheffler (@scottie.scheffler). See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Again, the church refuses to be transparent with their members as they enjoy the benefits of being a tax exempt corporation. Religion Unplugged56 BroadwayNew York, NY 10004, Religion Unplugged is a production of The Media Project and a member of the Institute for Nonprofit NewsEIN: 83-0461425site design by Peter Freeby, Its initial filing revealed EPA had $38 billion in stocks and mutual funds, Jillian Cheney, The Banshees of Inisherin, Ireland, Catholic, forgiveness, Irish Civil War, Irish Catholics, Irish conflict, Oscars 2023, Oscars, Academy Awards, movies, movie review, Inisherin, Colm Doherty, Martin McDonagh, Pdraic, Siobhn, Analysis, Atheism, Catholicism, Christianity, North America, Opinion, Politics, Religion, Society, Clemente Lisi, opinion, church vandalism, Catholic church, journalism, objectivity, bias, media bias, abortion, LGBTQ rights, politics, recharge, Recharge, would rank among the top five hedge funds, received awards from Religion News Association, Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, an EPPY Award for best business reporting from Editor & Publisher, included among the top 25 religion stories of 2020, filed a federal lawsuit against the church, published a statement to its members and constituents worldwide and posted three short videos to YouTube, used immediately to meet the needs of the growing Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Former employees said the fund mushroomed from about $40 billion in 2012 to around $100 billion by 2019. That case, brought by prominent former Utahn James Huntsman, sought at least $5 million in donations, interest and penalties, alleging the faiths top authorities fraudulently misled members about spending donations meant for spiritual endeavors on commercial projects instead. "These funds are then used to build up the Church and to further God's work throughout the world," LDS' website reads. It reported owning $27.8 million in shares in an index fund focused on companies in South Korea in late 2019, a stake that rose to $30.4 million by the end of last year. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Ensign Peak Advisors Jan 1995 - May 2020 25 years 5 months . If EPA were a hedge fund, itwould rank among the top five hedge fundsfor assets under management. Court documents in the Huntsman lawsuit have called it a hedge fund which holds in excess of $128 billion.. Harindra de Silva. I can't overstate how blatantly dishonest this statement is, and the church absolutely knows how deceptive and insulting such a rationale for creating a system of shell companies to hide their wealth is. That strategy, Clarke said, was designed to prevent members from parroting what Ensign was doing and to, as the paper stated, protect them from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information., Church officials described the fund as a rainy-day account and to help fund operations in poorer parts of the world such as Africa, where the faith is booming where member donations cant keep up.". The church along with our investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, have only recently been made aware of allegations brought forward by a former Ensign Peak employee, said Doug Andersen, a church spokesman. 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