A class-action lawsuit was filed last week in a Utah federal district court against the Latter-Day Saints Church alleging fraud, unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty in the handling of tithed funds and other contributions by the Church. The complaint (full text) in Chappell v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesis Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (D UT, filed 10/31/2023) alleges in part:
1. For decades, COP has used false pretenses to obtain donations. Rather than use these funds entrusted to it for charitable work, COP secreted donations away in Ensign in order to avoid public scrutiny and accountability to the donors, and instead used them for purposes never contemplated by donors and contrary to representations by COP....
3. For instance, COP maintains various philanthropies, including “Humanitarian Relief,” which provides “immediate emergency assistance to victims” of disasters. On its website, COP solicits donations to the Humanitarian Relief fund by stating that “One hundred percent of every dollar donated is used to help those in need without regard to race, religion, or ethnic origin.”
4. Despite these representations to donors, Plaintiffs understand based on public reports from third parties that COP deliberately hid that some, if not all, of these donations (including both tithes and donations made to a COP philanthropy) are permanently invested in accounts it never uses for any charitable work, so that every year, an enormous portion of the donations are never spent for these —or any— purposes.
Salt Lake Tribune reports on the lawsuit.
