Lawsuit says Pat Robertson abuses tax-free status to push product

[JI7]

<A lawsuit nearing trial has opened a rare window into the inner workings of Pat Robertson's media empire.

At the heart of the case is an issue that has bedeviled Robertson repeatedly over the years: the fuzzy line between his tax-exempt operations and his profit-making ventures.

The lawsuit accuses Robertson of abusing his tax-exempt status by using the resources of his nonprofit TV ministry to promote a commercial product - a high-protein diet shake.

Nonsense, the televangelist has responded: The shake was a totally separate venture, not related in any way to his Christian Broadcasting Network.

Now a trail of e-mails and other internal correspondence, dating back more than a year before the lawsuit, indicates that Robertson and other CBN executives were closely involved in the development of the shake venture.

In one letter addressed to nutrition-store managers, the broadcaster referred to the "built-in demand" he had generated for the shake and pledged to keep hawking it on his daily TV show, The 700 Club.

Other documents show that CBN produced a TV commercial for the shake. There was even talk of taking the product into the China market.>


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http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS/703270372/1050&template=currents

[Selatius]

1. Tax all churches, as Bill Maher repeatedly says.

I agree with him on this point. The only way you can end the abuse of using your tax-exempt status to lobby politicians and generate a profit is to remove the tax-exempt status.

[Sherman A1]

3. Agreed

They are selling a service and should be taxed just like any other entity.

[NMMNG]

2. Don't all churches?

:shrug:

[and-justice-for-all]

4. Haha!!! Let their kingdom fall!!!

That piece of shit has more money then the 3rd worlds combined gross domestic product and he is tax-exempt!? WTF. And the fuckers on my local newspaper messageboard do not call Pat Robertson empier a church...