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Tags: sec | investigation | mormon | church | investment | fund

Report: SEC Probing Secrecy of Mormon Church Investment Fund

Report: SEC Probing Secrecy of Mormon Church Investment Fund
(Gary Hider/Dreamstime.com)

By    |   Friday, 10 February 2023 09:28 PM EST

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into efforts by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to keep its investment portfolio, believed to be worth billions of dollars, secret.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Friday the SEC's investigation has focused on whether the church, widely known as the Mormon church, complied with disclosure requirements for large money managers. The Journal reported the investigation is at an advanced stage and is likely to lead to a settlement in the coming months.

Doug Andersen, a spokesperson for the church, declined to confirm or deny the existence of an SEC investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported. "The church works with many government regulators to ensure we are in compliance with the law," he said. "We take those responsibilities very seriously," Anderson said.

The portfolio is managed by Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., an investment firm owned by the church. Ensign Peak has made disclosure filings under its own name with the SEC since February 2020, according to a listing on the SEC website. The size of the portfolio is believed to be a tightly-held secret, but in its latest SEC filing on Sept. 30, Ensign Peak reported it was roughly $40 billion.

David Nielsen, a former investment manager at Ensign Peak, alleged in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service in 2019 that the church amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes.

The complaint reportedly accused church leaders of misleading members — and possibly breaching federal tax rules — by stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works. It also accused church leaders of using the tax-exempt donations to prop up businesses.

The Journal reported Ensign Peak and church officials said they hadn't violated any tax laws and that the fund was a rainy-day account to be used in difficult economic times.

On Jan. 31, attorneys for Nielsen gave a 90-page memo to the Senate Finance Committee in which they alleged that Ensign Peak had made false statements to the IRS in publicly available filings about the size of its assets and whether the firm held foreign bank accounts. Nielsen's attorneys asked the committee to investigate.

A copy of the memo can be found here.

"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," Anderson told The Wall Street Journal. "We are always willing to work with government regulators to resolve concerns and are committed to full compliance."

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into efforts by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to keep its investment portfolio, believed to be worth billions of dollars, secret. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with ...
sec, investigation, mormon, church, investment, fund
428
2023-28-10
Friday, 10 February 2023 09:28 PM
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