More eye opening statements on Mike's blog about how Ron Weinland used tithe money for himself and his wife and kids.
Juror#215 says:
ronaldweinerhead- Mr Weinland reported a $35,000 gross income each of the years 04 – 07. This figure was supposed to include an additional $35,000 “parsonage allowance” for his home. So essentially, he was claiming that his salary was $70,000, but that half of that was parsonage allowance on his mansion, so his gross income was $35,000.
He claimed that he gave himself a “raise” in 2008, and listed a much higher gross income that year, somewhere in the $200,000 range. This was the year that he had a CPA prepare his return more than a year past his extension deadline. However, even this increased number was short of the real total if his income by about $150,000.
J- the let [list] of inappropriate expenses were extensive; literally thousands of pages of receipts, cancelled checks and credit card statements, but I’ll try to summarize and categorize it as best I can remember.
- BMWs for Jeremy and Audra
- Jewelry for Laura (lots of jewelry)
- Family vacations around the world, not on church business
- Cruises, including spa and massage services while on the boat
- Trips to Las Vegas, not on church business
- Trips to visit other family members out of town
- Dining out around Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, while not doing church business
- Audra’s condo mortgage, and monthly homeowners association fees
- All of Audra’s utility, cable and phone bills
- All of Ron and Laura’s utility, cable and phone bills
- Security systems for both their home and Audra’s condo
- Medical and dental services, including LASIK surgery for Audra
- Miscellaneous expenses for Jeremy, including ski trips
- Personal grocery shopping trips on a regular basis
- Many trips shopping for expensive clothing, including places like the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, Nordstrom’s, and Tommy Bahama
- College tuition paid for Jeremy
- Wedding ring set for Jeremy’s wife
- Wedding ring set for Audra
- Expensive artwork presumably housed in Ron and Laura’s home
- Miscellaneous entertainment, including shows on the Las Vegas Strip
- AND all of Laura’s airfare and meal expenses when she accompanied Ron on his church related travels around the world
You can pretty much count on the fact that wherever they traveled to visit members, they ate well, entertained themselves, and went shopping.
This list is by no means complete, it’s just some of the big memorable pieces. I’m sure that Bags can add to the list from his memory as well.
As per the jury verdict, Ron Weinland is a harden criminal - that's the Plain Truth!
ReplyDeleteAt some point, you have to blame the "dumb sheep" also for giving him so much money without any accountability.
There are two things that trouble me:
1) While the rest of America was experiencing the pain of the Great Recession and the Financial crisis, crook Weinland and his family were living high off the hog on the backs of the dumb sheep tithe slaves - the same group of people who were victimized in the past by the WCG. As PT Barnum of Ringley Brothers Barnum and Baily Circus use to say, "You can fool some people ALL the time".
2) As a self employed small businessman myself, I pay my quarterly taxes every quarter. I labor to perform the proper cost segregation between personal and business expenses. I have never written off meals that involved entertaining a vendor simply because I know its a red flag - although for the first time I may be writing off 50% of a $22 Burger meal that happened last week because, the purpose of the meal was to meet with a contractor, discuss and execute a contract over lunch - which we did. I labor over little things like this example to make sure I am playing by IRS rules while the crook Weinland used his Church to finance a lavish personal lifestyle for himself and his familty without any regard to IRS rules.
I hope the IRS goes after the rest of the Weinland family for tax evaision for any money withdrawn from the Church that was used by the family members and went unreported as income.
As Americans, we all pay for the crooked Ron Weinland's of the world.
Richard
Reading this, the term, "hubris" comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I wonder if Laura had vocal-cord surgery that went bad, rendering her "The Silent Witness"?
Norm
It's amazing what you can do on such a limited budget!
ReplyDelete[This is like that old couple in the boat while the Doctor's house is exploding in What About Bob?
Apparently Laura the Silent Witness wasn't very silent when shopping at jewelry stores-
ReplyDeleteI imagine she was yelling, "I WANT THAT, AND THAT, AND THAT ONE TOO! GET A FEW MORE CREDIT CARDS OUT, RON, BECAUSE THEY EACH ONLY HAVE $40,000.00 LIMITS! OOOOOH, I WANT THAT TOO, AND THE ONE NEXT TO IT"
But, I could be wrong.
Maybe, when shopping at jewelry stores, Silent Laura just grunted and pointed.
Norm
Is he an Armstrongist religious leader or at the top of a 3rd world country?
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty much the same from here.
Didn't the Weinlands file a joint return? If so, his spouse would have signed it. Shouldn't she have been held just as accountable as Ron?
ReplyDeleteBB
If Weinland had an ounce of integrity, he would resign. But there is no gift of integrity in the COG ministry.
ReplyDeleteAll those trips to "Sin City" surely should have taught Ronnyboy "that's what you get for waking up in Vegas!"
ReplyDeleteDo you think that he is the only COG minister that spends like a drunken sailer? Is this only the tip of the iceburg? Every member of any of the COG'S should demand open disclosure of ministerial expenses or leave that church.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see the nun pictured on this post slap Ron Weinland's hand (or ass) real hard with a large wooden ruler.
ReplyDeleteCan we add that to his sentence over and above the jail time with Bubba?
Richard
What's spent in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
ReplyDeleteWe should hand the sentencing Judge a copy of the "Plain Truth about Child Rearing" booklet so the Judge can see it would be consistent with Church teachings to have the Nun pictured give Ron Weinland a sharp spanking with a wooden ruler.
ReplyDeleteOf course, in my day in the WCG, they were called "spanking boards".
Richard
"Spanking boards!" What a horrible term and horrible mindset we had imposed on us! How could we have been so dumb?
ReplyDeleteI look back in absolute horror at what that unmentionable (++&@##&&) organization deceived me into doing to my own precious children. I wish I could go back and erase it all, but it's no more possible for me than those former SS troops who lived, and most died, with the guilty memories intact.
My and other children still live with the effects of those horrible teachings and practices. I've learned the lessons well, but much too late.
We have three precious little dogs now who are loving and trusting toward everyone because no one has ever struck them in their entire lives. All creatures respond similarly. I curse every sermon I ever heard those ignorant bastards thunder about child rearing.
We called it "the board of education", or TBOE for short. Of course it was alternatively called TBOSS (the board of sore seats), or TBORA (the board of raw asses).
ReplyDeleteMy parents never used TBOE. That was something which I think Imperial Schools and SEP popularized. My parents sometimes used switches, metal spatulas, wooden spoons, and on occasion a straightened out metal clothes hanger. But, mostly it was the trusty old leather belt. If they thought we were developing callouses on one side, they'd do it left handed, or if the three or four daily spankings lost their effect, they would make us fast.
Basically, that's why I tried so hard to be one bad-ass MOFO for so many years. I figured I could scare off the predatory types, and it worked. Within the past 5 years, I came to realize that that is not pleasing at all to Jesus, who had to have been the toughest man to ever live, dying like He did for our sins. I also learned that turning the other cheek breaks bad and negative cycles.
BB
BB