Back in December of 2019, a whistleblower who worked for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told the Washington Post that the Mormon Church had been “stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works.” They had over $100 billion sitting in that stockpile, which they were using to develop a for-profit mall and bail out a failing insurance agency. The whistleblowers, David A. and Lars P. Nielsen, informed the IRS of this information and called on the agency to revoke the organization’s tax-exempt status.
The Church said it never spent the money on anything it wasn’t supposed to and that the stockpile was necessary “in the event of the second coming of Christ.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean.
The IRS has never acted on the complaint — but the story just got another major boost.
Now, James Huntsman is suing the Mormon Church over the allegations in that complaint, saying that the church is spending members’ tithe money — his money — on things that had nothing to do with charity.