More Good is a More LDS ($-laundering) Foundation?

The More Good Foundation is a "non-profit organization that helps Mormons share their beliefs on the Internet so interested people can learn more about Mormonism. It was created in 2005 by David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways..."

What do they do to share their Mormony beliefs?  They buy a lot of domains on the internet.  They "own" (registered and parked on) over 1300 web domain names , of which 400 are pro-LDS websites. From tax records, it appears in 2007 alone they spent over $140,000 purchasing domains and websites, most of which are believed by the foundation to paint Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in a negative light.

In 2012, at the height of my national media blitz, I was approached by an unnamed individual to buy out my blog (at the time called "prozac-ville").  I declined, and eventually the original blog name was taken by FAIR supporters.  I renamed it, eventually, to what it is called today.


The organization states that “While the Foundation is fully supportive of the Church and its mission, it is not directed by or funded through the Church; no Church funds are used for the Foundation.”

However, Futuremissionary reports that their tax returns tell a different story.  Apparently, Futuremissionary has found that ''starting in 2009, there were also yearly donations of between $100,000 and $200,000 from “LDS Foundation of the LDS Church.” Over 3 years, donations from this foundation totaled $450,000.''


I also received information derived from 990finder about donations to the More Good Foundation (see below). Effectively, this foundation looks a little like a money-laundering organization for doing the LDS church bidding. (note/edit: I wrote "looks a little like money-laundering" without claiming that it is acutal illegal laundering.  Many readers have read too much in my words here.) However, I won't go as far to say that it is a facade for LDS activity, but I am sure that David Neeleman coordinates with a GA regularly about the foundation's activity.  I recall when I was a young lad that the owner of Living Scriptures, Inc, Jared Brown (my neighbor and one-time temporary employer), had LDS general authorities on the phone or even at business meetings/conferences to discuss the direction Living Scriptures was taking.  At least Mr. Brown bragged about it to me.  Thus, I would be very surprised if Mr. Neeleman wasn't also conferencing regularly with his LDS elders.


Of interest is that in 2009, 2010 and 2011 the LDS church was the largest single donor.  Previously, it had been Neeleman himself. (The data is shown below.)

Another note of interest, FAIR, the apologetic organization run by Scott Gordon, received $2,500 from More Good in 2006.  (See this PDF and this PDF for more data on FAIR -- p.3 of Attch A.)

If you total the contributions and subtract the expenses for salaries (payouts) in the latter years, you will see that most of the foundation money goes to pay salaries of the directors and officers.  Very little seems to go elsewhere.  So the LDS church is actually mostly donating to pay the salaries of the foundation employees.  Why would they do that?

Now, it can be argued that the LDS Foundation of the LDS Church is not owned by the LDS Church.  The address listed for this group is 150 Social Hall Ave, SLC Suite 500. 

Not only is the building the same, but the same Suite 500 is also the listed address of Beneficial Life Insurance Co. in 2010, owned by Beneficial Financial Group, a Deseret Management Corporation, which is a wing of LDS incorporated.  In other words, we can be very sure that these donations to MFG are from LDS inc. 

The LDS Foundation has also been linked to Deseret Management Corporation by the Deseret News, the company that oversees the foundation. The reason this is important is because it shows that the LDS Church is paying for defensive positions against critics by using apologetic agents, something they deny doing.  Likewise, the money seems to be mostly going to paying salaries.  LDS inc also pays its GAs by giving them positions on LDS corporation boards. The More Good Foundation just might be another place for a GA/lackey to get a "stipend" which is actually paid for by an alleged charity arm of LDS Foundation.  All in all, it's an elaborate money shell game to hide the fact of their intent with donated money.


Here then is some of the contribution and expense information.  From: 990finder.

Taxes:

●     2005

○     $400k total

○     $300k from David Neeleman

○     $100k from Ken Woolley

○     Bus address same as Ken’s

●     2006  (PDF 2006 tax form)

○     GIUSEPPE MARTINENGO paid $51,817

○     received $190,438

○     $163,456 paid to employees

○     Gave FAIR $2,500  (see p. 10 of this PDF)

○     Contributions

■     david neeleman - $115k

■     Ken Woolley - $50k

■     Kevin Rollins - $25,029 in computers. He’s Pres of Dell.

○     $9564 in domain registration

○     $852 hosting

○     Very detailed expenses

○     Paid Allen Wyatt (ex pres) $24,933

●     2007 (PDF 2007 tax form)

○     Contributors

■     $667,782 total

■     $575k - David Neeleman

■     $80k - Ken Wooley

■     $10k - Bill Child (RC Willey owner)

○     Payouts

■     $85,742 for directors, officers, trustees

●     Nathan Gwilliam Former Pres - 43,750

●     Richard Miller VP - 62,192

●     Jonathon Johnson Pres - $25k

●     Giuseppe Martinengo Dir - $58,725

■     $153,512 for other employees

■     $17,682 for pension, employee benefits

○     Domain name acquisition - $112,299, $25k for 1

○     Website acquisition - $30k

●     2008 (PDF 2008 tax form)

○     Contributors

■     $602,090 total

■     $51,439 - Jet Blue shares

■     David Neeleman - $300k

■     Tom Dickson - $10k

■     Ken Woolley - $170k

■     JSY Foundation - $5k

■     Bioforce - $25k

■     Ronald A Ferrin - $51,439

■     Steven J & PA Anderson foun - $13k

■     Extra space - $25k

○     Payouts

■     Jonathon Johnson $99k

■     GIUSEPPE MARTINENGO - $81,600

■     Heather Newell VP - $56,333 MormonMusic.org, head mod at lds.net

■     Karen Merkley dir - $46,334

○     Domain name - $112,255 - Book value $46,597

○     Website acquisitions - $30k

●     2009 (PDF of 2009 tax form)

○     Contributors

■     $430,737 total

■     Boyer family - $10k

■     Clayton Christensen $25k

■     David Neeleman - $55k

■     K-tec - $32k

■     Kalan Investments LC - $10k

■     Ken Woolley - $55k

■     Minhavida - $58,500

■     Peery Foundation - $25k

■     Richard Tanner - $5k

■     Steven J &... $16,500

■     LDS Foundation of LDS Church - $100k

■     Tom Dickson - $10k

■     Yamagata Group - $15k

■     Center Seven (cloud hosting discount) - $5,040

○     Payouts

■     $278,825 - Directors, officers, trustees

■     $84,129 - salaries

■     $18,150 - pensions, employee benefits

■     JJ - $126k

■     Giuseppe - $85,200

■     Heather - $67,608

■     Karen Trifiletti - $52,250

○     70,397 contract writers

○     domain reg 14125

○     hosting 1565

○      

●     2010 (PDF of 2010 tax form)

○     Contributors

■     Total - $656,392

■     $25K CLAYTON Christensen

■     $78k david neeleman

■     57500 ktec

■     55k ken woolley

■     lds foundation - $200k

■     66k - minhavida

■     25k - peery

■     10k - steven j...

■     $110k - ashton family foundation

○     Payouts

■     $346,493 - Directors, officers, trustees

■     $51,881 - salaries

■     $24,865 - pensions, employee benefits

■     jj - $131,500

■     Giuseppe - $87,548

■     Heather - $78,574

■     Karen - $60,363

○     $55,772 contract writers

○     $12,763 domains

○     $3551 hosting

●     2011  (PDF of 2011 tax form)

○     Contributions

■     $903,547

■     Ashton 120k

■     david - 36k

■     ktec - 160k

■     ken - 60k

■     lds foundation - 150k

■     minhavida - 66k

■     peery - 35k

■     blake roney - 140k

■     steven lund - 25k

■     spencer kirk - 60k

■     org dgn - 41k

○     Payouts

■     $398,687 - Directors, officers, trustees

■     $48,203 - salaries

■     $112,571 - Contract writer (same amount as buying domains?)

■     $34,686 - pensions, employee benefits

■     jj - 150k

■     heather - 88578

■     karen 70109

■     david grant coo 90k

○     $12,248 domain registration

○     7470 hosting

Church Donation:

●     $450 total

Misc:

●http://www.moregoodfoundation.org/faq     Vids explaining moregood censorship http://www.moregoodfoundation.org/testimonials

●     Notice that they stopped having a fund for buying domains and websites (about $112k/yr) and it looks like they replaced it with a fund for “contract writers.” Might they be buying websites with content and calling that writers? The last year, they had the same budget ($112k).

 

Funded by Church?

“We support The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in every way, but we are not owned or operated by the Church.”

How is the Foundation Funded?

While the Foundation is fully supportive of the Church and its mission, it is not directed by or funded through the Church; no Church funds are used for the Foundation. Our funds come through the good graces of individual donors who are interested in seeing us fulfill our goals and make a positive difference with LDS information.” - http://www.moregoodfoundation.org/about

Domain:

enom $13.95

$12,248 domain registration

Image on More Good Foundation website to

advertise that they want to go international. 

The Holy Ghost is a Bastet

I believe the Holy Ghost was represented in ancient Egypt as Bastet, the cat goddess, which was in part a protector of food.  You could say the Holy Ghost is a protector of spiritual nourishment, but that’s not what I’m really getting at here.   Let me explain.  Often in LDS sermons, you will hear or read dialogue like the following from apostle Joseph Wirthlin:

“Brothers and sisters, do we turn away the still, small voice? Do we do things that offend the Holy Ghost? Do we allow influences into our homes that drive the Spirit from our homes? The type of entertainment that we permit into our homes will certainly have an impact on the power of the Holy Ghost. Much of the entertainment of the world is offensive to the Holy Ghost. Surely we should not watch movies or television shows that are filled with violence, vulgar language, and immorality.”

How do we offend the Holy Ghost? From this we learn that the Holy Ghost is afraid of entertainers.  I can imagine that juggling clowns scare the bejeebus out of the HG because he doesn’t have physical hands to ward off any rouge flying balls or pins. The TV and movies also scare the HG, particularly if they use certain words and phrases.  You could say the meanest cruelest thing possible with the most polite words and nicest tone of voice—the HG will sit there and nod in approval at your proper etiquette. But use a foul four-letter word in praising your “f*cking amazing friend”, and the HG is startled by your lowly-worded compliment. 

Video violence, apparently, is also bad juju for the HG. If you’re a 14 year old boy playing soldier in Call of Duty (which happens to be similar to a Mormon phrase about the priesthood), the HG gets very anxious that you would kill computer characters instead of reading your scriptures.  Reproving someone betimes with sharpness, using guilt and shame in a form of emotional abuse according to D&C 121, and the HG will cheerlead your spiritual violence. Besides where was he when Joshua of the Old Testament was slaughtering women and children in actual violence?  He was on the right hand of God.   

If your  computer screen shows someone with too little clothing on screen, the HG will blush and run.  The HG is invisible, so how many naked people has the testator seen?  I mean, if you were invisible, you’d see as many naked bodies as you could.  It should be a lot, but apparently the slightest naked elbow will send shivers up the ghost’s spine.

Isn’t the HG’s job to be a comforter?  Isn’t he supposed to help you know right from wrong?  But the moment anything wrong happens, he’s out of there so fast, you won’t get a wave goodbye let alone a lesson on what’s bad.  He’s supposed to be busy flying around helping everyone gain a testimony, but if you dare think a single bad thought, chant a prayer just wrongly, show a single bare shoulder, curse under your breath once, well the Holy Ghost is offended and will fly away faster than Casper.  The HG is a selfish slacker on the job.  The HG doesn’t play ball with sinners.  Wear immodest gym shorts and try passing him the ball, and you can count on him to throw it into the stands and leave the building with his tail between his legs.  

The Holy Ghost is a scared little dog.  No, make that a scared little pussy, to put it bluntly.  The holy ghost is a pussy.  Yes, I just wrote that.  Bastet, the cat goddess, was fierce and bold.  The Holy Ghost, the pussy god, is fearful and timid.  Unlike the nocturnal Bastet, the HG is afraid of the dark, and goes to sleep at midnight whenever you stay out late.   Bastet whipped away the rats.  The HG will rat on you to the bishop by giving him the gift of discernment and toast your ass on the guilt barbeque grill.  He’s supposed to be a gift, but some gift he is.   The HG is a Lamanite Giver.  When you’re nice to him, he’ll bless you and bestow gifts of spirit on you.  But the moment you screw up, he’s like a collection agency reposessing those gifts.  Good luck getting back the gift. Like the Lamanite’s DNA, he’s just gone.  You’ll have to beg and pray and promise everything to God so he'll give up a sliver of his ghost again.  And if you read your scriptures and sacrifice your first born to a mission in Tanzania, he might reappear for brief moments of time and cause you to feel like crying.  He likes to get people crying.  If you’re not crying, then the HG is crying.

The Holy Ghost is the ultimate borderline personality disorder manipulator.  One moment he’s in love with you, the next, he's a catty emotional bitch. It all comes down to whether you’re doing whatever he wants. Do the right thing, you’re the golden child. Do the wrong thing, you have hurt the Holy Ghost and made him cry.  You’ve offended and scared off that pussy and he’s not coming back until you can prove to him you’re going to bow and worship just right.   It’s what happens with insecure tyrants.

What’s worse, apparently, you might mistake your own emotions for the Holy Ghost.  Boyd Packer wrote:

“Be ever on guard lest you be deceived by inspiration from an unworthy source. You can be given false spiritual messages. There are counterfeit spirits just as there are counterfeit angels. (See Moro. 7:17.) Be careful lest you be deceived, for the devil may come disguised as an angel of light.
“The spiritual part of us and the emotional part of us are so closely linked that is possible to mistake an emotional impulse for something spiritual. We occasionally find people who receive what they assume to be spiritual promptings from God, when those promptings are either centered in the emotions or are from the adversary.”

Yeah, the spirit, such a sneaky bastard. You could be manipulating yourself with your own inner pussy.  Or it could be the devil playing pussy advocate with your mind (which is a nicer way of saying it than the “devil is f*cking with your mind”).  You haven’t a chance, according to the elder Packer, of guessing the difference between the half-cracked holy spirit, your own Freudian emotions or the firebrand trickster.  No matter how you slice it, you’re screwed by this pussy.  He’s not going to help you get anything right if you do anything wrong.

So that begs the question, what does the holy ghost actually do that  you're not already doing?  If you're good, then you feel better because you have the spirit with you. If you're bad, the HG leaves you to feel worse.  Does the invisible HG do anything at all? 

I know that some of you are going to say I am committing the unpardonable, son-of-perdition sin of denying the Holy Ghost. Jesus once said, “Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father.”  It seems that without ever denying the HG, he chickens out and denies us long before we get the chance.  The biggest denial here is that the HG is actually here … to help or not.  While Bastet was a myth, at least we have paintings and carvings of her.  The holy ghost? Invisible is as invisible does.
 

A Challenge

This is my most basic blog post.  I challenge Mormons to show counter evidence that the LDS corporate engine is NOT giving property to apostles.  I've presented what appears to be pretty valid documentation that at least some apostles are profiting by being called prophets.  That is damning because their motives are now suspect.  Dig out the county recorder docs and prove me wrong.

The Meek Shall Inherit Multinational "Non-Profit" Corporate Laundered Monies

On yesterday’s blog, I reported that Property Reserve Inc (PRI) transferred a $600K condo to the trust of Apostle Russell Ballard’s wife, Barbara.  Some have commented that the $10 exchanged is the standard amount reported in Utah for Special Warranty Deeds.  That does seem to be the case.  Of course, this could be cleared up if only LDS Inc or even the state of Utah released the financial documents and opened up the books to financial operations within the LDS corporations operating in the state.  

Unlike most states which have full-reporting laws about property transactions, commissioners in various counties in Utah have looser rules.  They can keep quiet the value for how much land is sold and bought.  They can regulate who is allowed to divulge appraisal information.  That is, apparently (as I’m told by those working in the industry) the current owner of a property can dictate who you can and who you can’t hire as an appraiser and to whom you can divulge property values.  One could speculate that the LDS corporation, which is a major (if not the most significant) private land owner in Utah might have been a considerable influencer in the development of laws about property value reporting, so that it can keep its holdings closer to its sacred heart.

All that aside, another document has surfaced to show that not only is there no value reported for the transaction from PRI to the Ballard trust, but that less than a month after the deed was transferred, several beneficiaries were awarded portions of the value from that previously church-owned condo.  Here is the document:
 

(click on image to expand/zoom in)

Ballard’s trust a month after taking possession took out a $200K equity "loan" and relayed the divided $200K in ownership to six parties.  Some of these, such as H & M Murdock, D & M Roper,  CR & LS Ballard are likely children or other family.  CBB Holdings LTD appears to be owned by Craig B Ballard.  TBB Investments appears to be owned by Tamara Ballard.  And less clear, Old Oak could be one of a few entities, including Old Oak Properties LLC or Old Oak Family Limited Partnership (Though the latter seems to have expired).  Also, as a side note for what it's worth, the article on wikipedia about Russell Ballard reports one of his daughters married into the billionaire Jon Huntsman family.

What I take from this recorder document is, the Ballards received a nice gift and then shared it with the children.  This is not a property that the church is letting them just use for now, as a convenient place for them to reside close to church office buildings.  This is pure out and out ownership. 

Another very interesting tidbit is that, back in 1997, the property where the Gateway Condos stand at present were owned by Marjorie Hinckley, late wife of the late prophet.  I haven't unfolded this yet, but I suspect that the original ownership of the land was an LDS corporate entity, and Marjorie was given ownership in the investment properties where eventually the condos were built (and now sold at around $500-600K a pop).  What is the deal with apostle's wives getting properties through PRI?

If one searches the SLC county assessor page for condos at 40 N State St, one will find Property Reserve Inc owns dozens of condos there.  It’s not coincidence that the LDS corporation owns and then transfers these to its top executives.

The Widow’s Might…Makes Rites

LDS sole-corporation owner President Thomas Monson likes to help widows. The LDS church likes to advertise this. On his official LDS web page, they write:

“President Monson was called to serve as the bishop of the Sixth-Seventh Ward in Salt Lake City. Eighty-five widows lived in the ward, and as a young bishop he visited each one regularly, making sure their spiritual and temporal needs were met.”

He talks often, as prophet, about visiting widows, even recently. Widow Zella Thomas prayed that her former bishop would visit her, and he “told her that we had come because of direct inspiration from our Heavenly Father.” She passed away the day after his visit.

Tom likes helping the widows. Another pending-widow close to him comes to mind—Barbara Ballard, the wife of probably soon-to-be-deceased apostle Russell Ballard, grandson of another apostle Melvin Ballard. The Ballards have been in the church hierarchy for a long while.

Now at this point you're probably saying: “Russell Ballard is not dead, and to say such a thing is tactless and rude.” However, it seems the church is preparing for this inevitability, and helping the would-be-widow Ballard before it is too late. M. Russell, a businessman by trade until 1974 (when he was first called to full-time positions in church hierarchy) wasn’t all that successful. He took over his father’s auto-sales business in 1956, eventually running it into the ground after signing with Ford to be the first Edsel dealer in Utah. Later he tried his hand at entertainment, presiding over the Valley Music Hall in Bountiful, UT which also failed financially. Despite these monetary setbacks, with seven children in tow (some apparently still young), 46 year old Ballard was called to be a mission president, then as an area authority and eventually as an apostle six years later. He may not have had a chance to settle his business enterprises in that short time, but his star in the LDS church rose brightly.

And it’s paying off. You see, the LDS corporation recently "donated" a $600K condo to the widow-will-be Barbara. (Ok, exchanged for $10.)  Here’s the SLC assessor page (property 09-31-385-061-0000).

You may recall from a previous blog that apostle Dallin Oaks had his condo #5D (a few down from Ballard) also transferred to him a year after #7D went to Barb.  Here’s the county recorder document showing the special warranty deed transfer from Property Reserve Inc to Barbara Ballard.

For those that don’t understand this, when a special warranty deed is executed, ownership of the real property named in the deed is conveyed by the grantor (Property Reserve, Inc) to the grantee (Barbara Ballard), together with all rights and privileges belonging to that property and that the property is free from all encumbrances made by that grantor and that he or she will forever warrant and defend the grantee against any lawful claim. That is, the property is essentially gifted from the LDS corporation to Ballard.

This is Monson’s doing, I’m sure. He is so excited to take care of his widows, that he even treats his ailing friends’ wives as widows before they’re due. It’s really charitable of the LDS corporation to be thinking of the widows, present and future. I know a woman dear to me who has been alone for almost two-decades. I know a condo on State Street is just the thing to give her solace and comfort.

Jesus taught in what is called the story of the “widow’s mite” that small sacrifices of the poor mean more to God than the extravagant, yet proportionately lesser, donations of the rich. In the gospel accounts, Jesus condemns religious leaders who feign piety, accept honor from people, and steal from widows.

The LDS corporation could claim that they are ramping up their right teaching by not only not stealing a single mite from the widow, but giving a mighty condo, in what could be seen as a rite of passage for the widows of the church’s highest leaders. Never mind that the other 94,732.38 widows in the LDS church are donating tithing to pay for Ballard’s $600K condo. The LDS church takes care of its own. A very few, special of its own.

Now some may argue that Ballard purchased the condo from the LDS corp for a fair price.  This could be cleared up if only they released the financial documents and opened up the books to financial operations at the LDS church.  However, don't expect them to do so if they have anything to hide.