Televangelist used donations to set up Cayman Islands company

[elehhhhna]

NEW YORK, USA: Political Affairs Magazine, September 7, 2005 – In 1998, American televangelist and one-time presidential candidate, Pat Robertson, used the donations of his flock to set up an offshore mining company in the Cayman Islands called Freedom Gold Limited. The purpose of setting the company offshore, of course, was to avoid taxes and to make its connections to Robertson more difficult to trace.

http://www.caymannetnews.com/2005/09/920/foreign.shtml

Full article, here, w/ dirt galore:
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/1802/1/32/

[Walt Starr]

1. Get this to Democratic Congressmen/Senators

Seriously, this is damning information about FEMA and can bring down the Bushes.

[Robert Oak]

2. AWESOME!

Corporate Jesus!

This is the kind of thing that needs to be advertised far and wide.

These people use Jesus to hoodwink their followers, it's an old game,
played out over and over.

[Autonomy]

4. LOL reminds me of the cartoon in Al Franken's "Lies..."

"Supply-side Jesus"

[Robert Oak]

15. Al Franken

Damn straight but this is beyond that bs "supply side" which still implies some sort of political ideology standing behind Jesus.

Jesus is being used as a corporate logo currently.

[faithnotgreed]

23. clearly bush also was informed of this sadly effective tactic

[libnnc]

3. kick

:kick:

[Joanne98]

5. I wonder what he's doing with his "Operation Blessing" money?

[elehhhhna]

8. It blessed his operation, that's for damned sure.

Having spent time in the Caymans, and having met a few Caymanian bankers, I can say this: The lawful confiscation of private accounts which are used by the bigwigs (sports, govenment, religion, industry, heirs, and entertainmnet people--names that would blow your mind) to avoid paying taxes would rebuild NO ten times over.

[elehhhhna]

9. dupe. or in freeper; doop

[babylonsister]

6. And FEMA blesses Operation Blessing?

"With the Bush Administration's approval, Robertson's $66 million relief organization, Operation Blessing, has been prominently featured on FEMA's list of charitable groups accepting donations for hurricane relief. Dozens of media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press, duly reprinted FEMA's list, unwittingly acting as agents soliciting cash for Robertson. "How in the heck did that happen?" Richard Walden, president of the disaster-relief group Operation USA, asked of Operation Blessing's inclusion on FEMA's list. "That gives Pat Robertson millions of extra dollars."

Excerpt from here:

The Nation: Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/blumenthal

Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash
Max Blumenthal

Every cloud has a silver lining. Hurricane Katrina has devastated New Orleans, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, and plunging the entire city into chaos. In the hurricane's wake, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its director, Michael Brown, forced out of his former job at the International Arabian Horse Association, with no credentials in disaster relief, have become targets of withering criticism. Yet FEMA's relief efforts have brought considerable assistance to at least one man who stands to benefit from Hurricane Katrina perhaps more than any other individual: Pat Robertson.

With the Bush Administration's approval, Robertson's $66 million relief organization, Operation Blessing, has been prominently featured on FEMA's list of charitable groups accepting donations for hurricane relief. Dozens of media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN and the Associated Press, duly reprinted FEMA's list, unwittingly acting as agents soliciting cash for Robertson. "How in the heck did that happen?" Richard Walden, president of the disaster-relief group Operation USA, asked of Operation Blessing's inclusion on FEMA's list. "That gives Pat Robertson millions of extra dollars."

Though Operation USA has conducted disaster relief for more than twenty-five years on five continents, like scores of other secular relief groups currently helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, it was omitted from FEMA's list. In fact, only two non-"faith-based" organizations were included. (One of them, the American Red Cross, is being blocked from entering New Orleans by FEMA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.) FEMA, meanwhile, has reportedly turned away Wal-Mart trucks carrying food and water to the stricken city, teams of firemen from Maryland and Texas, volunteer morticians and a convoy of 1,000 boat owners offering to help rescue stranded flood victims. While relief efforts falter in the face of colossal bureaucratic incompetence, the Bush Administration's promotion of Operation Blessing has ensured that the floodwaters swallowing New Orleans will be a rising tide lifting Robertson's boat.

more, more more...

[DemInDistress]

7. and those GOPigs chased and haunted

Bill and Hillary for a 100k Whitewater deal that couldn't be proven
after 6 years of investigations.I hope the GOPigs use that same zeal
hunting Pat Robertson

[Zenlitened]

10. As if I had to click on this thread to know the televangelist in question

... was Pat Robertson.

:eyes:

[wryter2000]

16. I had to check just to make sure

Bingo!

Diversifying from his mines in Africa, is he?

[elehhhhna]

11. dag! made greatest in 10 minutes. Thanks, y'all!

[SuniSurf]

12. To see it all laid out is MIND BOGGLING

You know things like this are going on, but MY GOD, how sick and low can they all get?

[JDPriestly]

13. Political Affairs is a Marxist, communist publication.

How reliable is it as a news source? Not being Marxist or communist myself, I'd rather get my information from a more reliable source, thank you. I don't watch the Republican cable TV news or read Republican magazines either.

[rooboy]

25. Who gives a damn what political leanings a publication has?

the issue is whether or not they tell the truth, regardless of persuasion.

[PowerToThePeople]

14. So? Did you expect them to act honestly? puleezzz...

That's the Republican way..

[xmas74]

17. Strange to see this name today.

My pastor railed against him today, calling him "un-Christian". He cited this as an example and also cited the way he purposely attempts to pit all religions against each other in the US.

Just strange to see it since it was brought up at church today.

[BamaBecky]

18. Everyday....now....we are getting...GREAT INFORMATION!...n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

19. WWJHHA

Where Would Jesus Hide His Assets?

[OneGrassRoot]

20. unfrigginbelievable....... kick and recommended n/t

[TrueAmerican]

21. A communist magazine?

Alert the media if you must, but if it is only reported in a Communist mag, the story ain't going nowhere.

[indepat]

22. Pat and Jerry have my nomination as the embodiment of the anti-Christ

[Initech]

24. It's now official: Pat Robertson is... the ANTI CHRIST!!!

Really, this is 100% concrete proof that the man is pure evil.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. Operation Blessing & Freedom Gold

Gee haven't I heard these names before? Ah yes, Africa. Mobutu. mmm.

[DoYouEverWonder]

28. Ah yes, here's the link

I knew I had it somewhere. But the connection was with Charles Taylor. It's hard to keep up with the brutal dictators that Robertson like to hook up with.



Pat Robertson's Gold

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, September 22, 2001; Page A29

Last week's terrorist attacks brought out the worst in televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Three days after hijacked jetliners slammed into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and the Pennsylvania countryside, Robertson posted a statement on his Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) Web site announcing that pornography, rampant secularism, the occult, abortion, the absence of prayer in schools and insults of God "at the highest level of our government" had sent the Almighty over the edge. America was attacked, Robertson asserted, "because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us."

<snip>

But in May 1999, Robertson, through Freedom Gold Limited, an offshore company registered in the Cayman Islands but based at CBN headquarters in Virginia Beach, signed an agreement with Taylor and key cabinet members allowing the for-profit Freedom Gold to explore and receive mining rights in southeastern Liberia, where gold is believed to be in the ground.

It's a great deal for Liberia, which is now an economic basket case thanks to the long civil war and Taylor's corruption. It's also good for Freedom Gold, which was formed by Robertson in 1998. Liberia -- and for all practical purposes we're talking Taylor -- gains 10 percent ownership of Freedom Gold.

As The Post's Douglas Farah reported in January, huge amounts of the country's funds have been siphoned off by a small group of Taylor's associates and relatives. Taylor "has his hand in everything and gets a cut of everything," a businessman told The Post. Other Liberians, probably Taylor's gang, are entitled to buy at least 15 percent of Freedom Gold's shares after the exploration period.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Joe Mathews, Freedom Gold's vice president for finance and administration ("actually I'm acting as managing director," he confided), said the company is currently in the exploration stage but "there is little activity at the moment because it's monsoon season."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A7124-2001Sep21

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Hoo boy!

------------------------------------------------------
URGENT yet easy! Hold the government accountable for Katrina's aftermath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4736062

[arwalden]

29. Christian Crooks And Liars!