The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a related entity have been fined $5M by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC alleged that the church and its investment management entity Ensign Peak Advisors used shell companies to conceal investments between 1997 and 2019.
The Truth and Transparency Foundation, a group previously known as MormonLeaks, alleged in 2018 that the church had used a shell company to hide investments.
- The SEC accused the church on Tuesday of "going to great lengths" to avoid disclosing the size of its equity holdings, which allegedly grew to $32B by 2018.
- Ensign Peak allegedly used "shell companies" that "obscured" the size of its investment portfolio, according to a statement released by the SEC.
- The church said in a statement that it believes "all securities required to be reported were included in the filings by the separate companies."
- It noted that Ensign Peak "began filing a single aggregated report" after the SEC expressed concerns about its reporting practices in June 2019.
- The church specified it has "cooperated with the government" since the concerns were first raised.
