Posted on 07/12/2005 6:08:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN DIEGO - A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted the head of a worldwide evangelical movement on charges of income tax evasion.
Morris Cerullo, president of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, misstated his income by $550,000 between 1998 and 2000, according to the indictment. Cerullo was charged with three counts of filing false tax returns, each of which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $100,000 penalty.
Arrangements were being made for Cerullo's surrender, said Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hardy.
Cerullo, an evangelist known for his cable network and worldwide crusades, could not be reached for comment. His defense attorney, Greg Vega, a former U.S. Attorney in San Diego, said Cerullo looked forward to an opportunity to respond to the allegations in court.
"After three years of investigation of both (Cerullo) and his ministry, he is pleased that the IRS has found nothing to be inappropriate in the operation of the ministry," Vega said.
Two former executives of the San Diego-based ministry have sued Cerullo saying they were fired after they complained about Cerullo's fund-raising practices. When former senior executive John Paul Warren filed suit in 2001, his lawyers claimed at the time. Cerullo lived in a mansion in the exclusive San Diego-area community of Rancho Santa Fe and owned a jet with a gold-plated interior. Several employees had reported possible criminal violations to the Internal Revenue Service, according to the lawyers, who did not return calls seeking comment.
"All who partake in this country's benefits have a responsibility to pay their taxes, and there are no self-bestowed exemptions," said U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.
Cerullo's ministry says it has offices in Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa and it claims to have trained more than 1 million people in Christian proselytizing.
He bought PTL television network and Heritage USA theme park in 1990, three years after the park closed amid the sex and money scandal that engulfed PTL founder Jim Bakker.
Cerullo, who claims he was living in a Jewish orphanage when he became a Christian at the age of 14 1/2, drew fire in 2000 from Jewish groups for deceptive advertising about a made-for-TV film, "The Rabbi," that ended with the lead character converting to Christianity.
In 1992, authorities in India ordered Cerullo to leave the country after he was nearly lynched by an angry mob. Cerullo worked a crowd of 30,000 - many of them sick - into a frenzy for two hours and then pronounced them cured, prompting many in the crowd to call him a cheat.
Don't you just hate that when that happens?
Carol Lam is a spiritual degenerate.
Nobody is morally required to pay, what they or I, consider to be confiscatory tax rates. I am the one that determines whether or not the seizure of my money is theft or not. The exercise of freedom requires that a free person has the power to determine the disposition of the economic value & money that they generate.
If I create and make and build and earn and another controls the disposition of what I create and make and build and earn, then I am a slave of the controller.
I refuse to be a slave. I am not a slave and I'd rather die than be a slave.
All who partake in this country's benefits have a responsibility to refuse to be a slave.
This is just over the top.
So exactly how does that differ from anarchy?
BTW: I could not believe my eyes last night when I saw Jim Bakker is back on the air with his own TV show!
Wish folks would support their local community churches..and not give to these TV preachers with extravagant lifestyles.
This guy is like Benny Hinn. Send me your money, and I can cure people too. He, and those like him, will be held accountable one day and it will not be pretty.
Well .. I've known this ministry for years .. and I'll be very surprised if this is true.
After reading "Persecution" - to me this is just more of the same attack against the church.
"Well .. I've known this ministry for years .. and I'll be very surprised if this is true"
Prepare to be surprised because I can almost guarantee you it is true. This is not persecution, this is God exposing the wolves among his sheep!
If you'd like a little more info on this guy click here> http://apostasywatch.com/_wsn/page4.html
No thank you .. I don't need "a little more info".
In order to force tithing, friends I knew for years, who worked in the cerullo office, told me that he withdrew 10 percent for HIS ministry off the top without written permission from their paychecks.
Money that they wanted or needed to give to their own local churches.
When I asked them why or how, they said that Cerrulo claimed that his ministry was their church and therfore HE was required and entitled to extract it by force up front.
Don't know if it's true, but it fits with the multimillion dollar homes and planes with gold plated interiors.
I think the guy is a fraud. But hey that's me.
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