Trinity Broadcasting Network Sued Again by Family Member
The leaders behind the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the "world's largest faith channel," are coming under scrutiny once again by another member of the Crouch family.
Joseph McVeigh, uncle to Brittany Koper – the granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch – filed a lawsuit against the Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, its affiliates, and TBN lawyers at the Orange County Superior Court.
He claimed TBN was maliciously targeting him as part of a "campaign of retaliation" against Koper and anyone related to her for her recent exposure of unlawful financial schemes occurring among the network's top executives and directors, as reported by the Court House News Service.
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When Koper, the former director of finance and human resources, was appointed as the company's chief financial executive, she discovered that attorneys were illegally distributing more than $50 million for luxury goods, such as jets, estates, and vehicles, to company directors.
Unwilling to keep quiet or cover up the unlawful activities, she reported the incident and was subsequently fired, allegedly threatened with physical and lethal violence, and betrayed by her attorneys, Davert & Loe.
McVeigh claimed that in order to pressure Koper to remain silent about the network's financial affairs, her attorneys sued her, her husband, and her relatives as well.
Though Koper's uncle had never worked for Trinity or any of its affiliated companies, he was "falsely and maliciously sued on contracts that the defendants themselves later admitted did not exist."
McVeigh had previously taken out a $65,000 loan from TBN in 2010, which he agreed to make monthly payments on a promissory note for 13 years. Koper, her husband, and former TBN officers approved his loan.
But after Koper exposed the organization's illegal activities, McVeigh was sued by attorneys on "meritless claims" that he had made no payments on his loan.
He claimed that TBN's lawyers falsely accused him of being in default on two canceled notes and on a nonexistent loan as well. He also revealed that the defendants assigned his loan, which was formerly handled by TBN's affiliate Heroes Under God to another affiliate, Redemption Strategies, and failed to give him new payment instructions or return his phone calls in regards to future payments.
The 20-page complaint filed by McVeigh stated that he later learned that attorneys on behalf of Redemption Strategies had secretly filed a lawsuit against him for purportedly breaching two canceled notes.
"Plaintiff had never heard of Redemption Strategies, but the ... lawsuit filed by Redemption Strategies alleged that it had been assigned collection rights on the two canceled notes."
When the Redemption Strategies lawsuit was filed, McVeigh had made all prior payments on the promissory note and his next payment was put on hold because attorneys had told him they were assigning his loan to another unidentified third party, which they never clarified.
McVeigh asserted that the "baseless and malicious" lawsuit against him also wrongfully accused him of conspiring with the Kopers to embezzle a large sum of money from TBN, which he denied.
His lawsuit additionally exposed a long list of other illegal activities by the Costa Mesa-based network including "multiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals" and creation of "sham loans to alter-ego corporations" that bought luxury items for personal use.
The plaintiff claimed that vice president Jan Crouch had an affair with a staff member at the Holy Land Experience, director Paul Crouch used TBN funds to pay for a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford, and that their son Matthew Crouch exposed his genitals to cleaning staff on multiple occasions, all of which was covered up by the broadcasting officers and employees.
McVeigh seeks damages for financial loss, attorney fees, loss of reputation and punitive damages. He did not name Paul and Jan Crouch as defendants in his lawsuit, like Koper.
Davert & Loe Lawyers, the attorneys being sued in the case, did not return an email to The Christian Post seeking comment.
Another attorney for Trinity, Colby May, said that there was no merit to the lawsuit by McVeigh and that it may be an attempt to divert attention from the Kopers allegedly embezzling money from the company, the OC Weekly reported.
May also said that McVeigh and the Kopers can "huff and puff" and slap as many "frivolous" lawsuits on the network as they wanted, but regardless they were "going to have their day of reckoning," which they could to do nothing to prevent.
