ReligionUnplugged.com reporters sent emails and made phone calls to Nielsen and his lawyers as well as to members and staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to ask about the status of the memorandum and a schedule for any possible hearings in Washington. Alongside that stream of new financial information, a few other cracks in the walls of secrecy around Ensign Peak are being widened in federal court. EPA started filing a quarterly 13F form on Feb. 14, 2020, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates publicly traded companies and other financial firms. Along with the quarterly SEC filings, EPA appears to be more recognizable as an institutional investor in public companies now. In the document, he estimates that his former employer has evaded payments of more than $20 billion in taxes and concealed foreign accounts that should total $2 billion in penalties. Manage Products and Account Information. If you read the early patriarchal blessings, many early members were told they would see Jesus before they died, because they truly believed they were in the final years before his return. Roger has 1 job listed on their profile. Ensign Peak Advisors. Of course the church (and church apologists) would reply that Joseph F Smith was speaking as a man in that instance, and that $124 billion in liquid assets is not "sufficient" for the church's needs. . Some of the stocks in which Ensign has invested millions include Apple Inc., Chevron Corp., Visa Inc., JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Amazon and Google, according to the article.". That result would also encourage fraudulent claims of exempt status within the tax-exempt sector generally, and by non-exempt religious organizations in particular.. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Roger served as a professor for more than ten years on the faculty of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. Those organizations will not only help people in need with the money, but they will be transparent about how they spend your money. And while that might not be against the law (there are questions of whether it's lawful to be tax exempt when you are not actively using the fund for charitable purposes), it is absolutely against their own definition of honesty. Clarke, Roger G and de Silva, Harindra and Thorley, Steven, Primer on Factor Exposures and Payoffs (September 29, 2017). Given the popularity of factor investing, also known as rules-based, smart beta, or simply quantitative portfolio management, a number of students and traditional equity analysts have asked for a primer to introduce basic terms, concepts, and calculation procedures. Harindra de Silva. Roger Clarke, the head of Ensign Peak, told the Wall Street Journal that the fund was an emergency account to be used in difficult times. Grald Causs is the church's Presiding Bishop who oversees church finances, including EP. Harindra de Silva. The Ensign Peak Advisors management team includes Anthony Kirkham (Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager), Jason Butterfield (Chief Compliance Officer), and Roger Clarke (President). . 1907, 7) BYU Marriott School of Business. . Use tab to navigate through the menu items. In a complaint filed with the IRS, Nielsen accused Ensign of taking in billions from members tithes and other donations and not spending any of it over a 22-year period for charitable purposes. Ensign Peak Advisors. Roger G. Clarke currently serves as a research collaborator with Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) Analytic Investors. Available at SSRN: If you need immediate assistance, call 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United States, or +1 212 448 2500 outside of the United States, 8:30AM to 6:00PM U.S. Eastern, Monday - Friday. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in 0.084 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. The investment activity has been the subject of. Back to the article: Debates about Mormon finances and the question of transparency have persisted for decades but were triggered again in December by a whistleblower complaint filed by David Nielsen, a former portfolio manager with Ensign Peak, and reported by The Washington Post. Not only is that statement simply untrue, it is beyond self serving for a man who knows the enormous amount of cash they are sitting on to tell those who do not have the means that they have to pay tithing in order to not just get out of poverty, but to enter the temple which they are told is essential to their salvation. Note: ReligionUnplugged.com will update this story with responses from relevant parties. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Asia Pacific +65 6212 1000. Penske Automotive Group, for example, released its quarterly earnings on Nov. 21, 2020, andnoted in its press release that, among institutional and hedge fund investors, Ensign Peak Advisors increased its stake in Penske by 2,651% and now owns 181,578 shares of Penskes stock, valued at $7 million. Ensign Peak Advisors. The head of EPA, Roger Clarke, indicated to the Journal that EPA is a rainy-day account to be used in difficult economic times. Some church leaders suggested the fund could be used in the event of an economic or financial crisis. When it does happen, we dont have any idea whether financial assets will have any value at all. The original story was reported by the Washington Post on December 17th, 2019, and the Wall Street Journal did another dive into the Ensign Peak fund this past weekend. This week, Roger Clarke, the head of Ensign, told WSJ, 'Paying tithing is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money.' 'So they never wanted to be in a position. But, the paper reported, they gave estimates for its main areas of expenditure that, collectively, total about $5 billion. Religion Unplugged reached EPA's managing director Roger Clark by phone on Monday, offering to explain key parts of this story and to ask questions for EPA to give a response. Donate to the newsroom now. There is no faith promoting answer here which is apparent from their terrible answer here. Harindra De Silva. By 2003, Ensign Peaks assets had grown, according to court documents, though the church isnt publicly saying by how much. A former employee of a $100 billion investment fund owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has submitted a memorandum to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and its subcommittee on taxation and IRS oversight about the operations of the Salt Lake City-based Ensign Peak Advisors Inc. Imagine giving up a vacation because you needed to send those tithing checks in only to find out that the church earns about $24 million dollars per day in gains alone. According to its first 2020 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed months after allegations by whistleblower David Nielsen and his twin brother, Lars, made headlines, Ensign Peaks value was reported at $37.8 billion in stocks and mutual funds. 323.244.1154. Tax avoidance: Nielsens document claims EPA has not disputed his original allegations that 1) EPA engaged in no religious, charitable or educational activities in the entire relevant period, 1997-2019, and 2) EPAs only distributions over 22 years were for the for-profit operations of an insurance company and a luxury shopping mall. Now, EPA has finally admitted in a recently published Form 990-T filing in November 2020 (for 2019) that EPA does have foreign bank and investment accounts. Nielsens document argues that EPA should be liable for more than $2 billion in penalties. . David A. Nielsen, a former employee at EPA, says in the filing that the new memorandum contains more information than the document he submitted to the IRS Whistleblower Office in November of 2019 that was a placeholder submission and was given to ReligionUnplugged.com and other outlets by Nielsens twin brother, Lars Nielsen, in the fall of 2019. In contrast, a long-only portfolio of individual securities, using the same risk model and return forecasts, captures most (e.g., 80%) of the potential improvement. It shows up increasingly in reports and press releases from those publicly traded companies. I don't really know what more to say here, because Carolyn is actually doing something more in line with what the Bible teaches about helping those in need than the church that claims to speak for God. The fund holds immense stakes of $400 million or more in household stocks like Home Depot, Disney and Johnson & Johnson while at times making lucrative quick trades in meme stocks such as GameStop and Tesla. This is yet another rationale that is contradicted by their past actions, and they are only saying it to try and pacify members who are waking up to realize that this church is not only untrue, but not good, either. David Nielsen, the former Ensign Peak fund manager, said the tithing-fueled fund held at least $100 billion during his nine-year tenure there ending in 2019. This was approximately $2 billion to fund classic private interests., Senate Finance Committee - by Paul Glader. His document argues that EPAs tax avoidance gave it a distinct competitive advantage over other investment firms. The document alleges the firms cash-rich position and secretive, stable status made it a preferred investor in private equity institutions. 1. Ensign Peak is a huge investor in iconic technology stocks. . It noted that the whistleblower report and media reporting on it heaped pressure on the church to be more transparent about its finances, something the church has avoided for decades.. A federal judge recently tossed out the lawsuit, but Huntsmans lawyers plan to appeal. Latter-day Saint officials acknowledged that it used Ensign funds to underwrite construction of City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City and rescue Beneficial Life, a church-owned insurance company, but said there was nothing illegal in that. as well as other partner offers and accept our, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Ensign Peak Advisors. We are always willing to work with government regulators to resolve concerns and are committed to full compliance., Nielsens document claims the EPA firm was involved in a Klein conspiracy to subvert the lawful functioning of the IRS, through EPAs false and fraudulent statements in SEC and IRS filings, and other corrupt actions intended to conceal EPAs billions of dollars of income obtained through EPAs $100 billion for-profit investment business income on which EPA should have paid tax.. That should not surprise anyone considering the way they do accounting of these donations. Ensign Peak Advisors, the investment firm connected to the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints, started filing a quarterly 13F form on Feb. 14, 2010, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates publicly traded companies and other financial firms. The church here is saying they need the $124 billion for when the "next 2008" takes place so they "won't have to stop missionary work," yet when the 'Great Recession' actually did hit, the church never tapped into the fund nor did it halt missionary work. That strategy, Clarke said, was designed to prevent members from parroting what Ensign was doing and to, as the paper stated, protect them from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information., Church officials described the fund as a rainy-day account and to help fund operations in poorer parts of the world such as Africa, where the faith is booming where member donations cant keep up.". In 2003, the lawyers assert, the church earmarked money for City Creek from Ensign Peaks investment gains. BYU Marriott School of Business. BYU Marriott School of Business. As of June, the funds shares in five Big Tech companies Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook were worth nearly $9 billion, or 18% of its total value. Clarke told the Journal, We dont have any idea whether financial assets will have any value at all during a second coming. While some may look at that as a good thing, I actually think it's another instance where we can see that the church is not only untrue, but not good either. The financial records destroy Huntsmans fraud claim, its lawyers argued in Aug. 31 court filings. Reports reveal the big stakes in tech are part of a vast hands-on market strategy by Ensign Peak, with upward of 1,850 different stocks at times, spread across virtually every part of the U.S. economy and abroad. The document states in several places that Nielsen became more disillusioned over time as he worked at the firm and believed EPA was not using its resources for charitable, educational or religious purposes. Ensign Peak Advisors. Or imagine that you had a health emergency and couldn't pay the bills, because instead of creating a rainy day account of your own, you gave that money to the church and now have to rely on family and friends to bail you out because your money is now sitting in the church's investment portfolio? The regulator says the Church's investment manager "went to great lengths" to avoid disclosures. Even apologist Patrick Mason isn't trying to sugarcoat the juggernaut that is the church's excess liquid asset holdings, and the fact is that Harvard's endowment is actually being used to help people while the church's Ensign Peak fund has only been used to help the church's own businesses. Ensign Peaks holdings include $40 billion of U.S. stock, timberland in the Florida Panhandle and investments in prominent hedge funds. Sign up for our newsletter to get the inside scoop on what traders are talking about delivered daily to your inbox. David Nielsen explains in his new document to the Senate Finance Committee that he was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a person whose family was part of the church since the mid-1800s, who graduated from Brigham Young University and who served as a missionary for the church for two years in Brazil. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax Last revised: 12 Oct 2016. Executive Director Keywords: Portfolio Theory, Factor Portfolios, Factor Investing, Portfolio Constraints, Smart Beta, Suggested Citation: In several rounds of clashing court motions, the closely watched dispute led church attorneys to reveal innermost business details to a federal judge on some of Ensign Peaks biggest transactions including how it helped fund the City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City. As he grew disillusioned with leadership, the document says he eventually resigned on Aug. 29, 2019, and filed a document to the IRS Whistleblower Office in November of 2019. BYU Marriott School of Business. The Ensign Peak Advisors management team includes Paul Davis (Chief Operating Officer), Anthony Kirkham (Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager), and Jason Butterfield (Chief Compliance Officer) . When we shut down critical thinking, it allows those who claim authority from God to abuse that trust over and over again, which we have seen from the days of Joseph Smith promising exaltation to marry the young daughters of early members through today with finances, interviews with children, or shutting down questions about church history. And please email us if you disagree with our post - we welcome all comments! And, sadly, as we see with the way leaders shut down critical thinking, demonize those who research it, and hide information from its members, the church will never be good, either. Ensign Peak Advisors employs 11 employees. Children are starving to death every minute, millions upon millions of people have no access to clean water, and natural disasters impact poor countries around the world and yet the church has never once made a charitable donation from this $124 billion account according to the whistleblower account. He also served as president and chief investment officer of TSA Capital Management in Los Angeles, CA for ten years and as chairman of the board of Analytic Investors for twenty years. I can't overstate how blatantly dishonest this statement is, and the church absolutely knows how deceptive and insulting such a rationale for creating a system of shell companies to hide their wealth is. What member is going to be harmed by seeing that the church has a professionally run investment fund and then attempt to replicate it? From 1995-2020 he served as president of Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., an investment management affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the same exact reason the church refuses to be transparent with members about problems with church history whether it's Book of Mormon translation, Joseph Smith's implementation and use of polygamy and polyandry, or the vast issues with the First Vision as they celebrate the 200th anniversary. . See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Roger Clarke, the head of Ensign Peak, told the Wall Street Journal that the fund was an emergency account to be used in difficult times. This is absolutely ridiculous. Not only is the church being dishonest by leading the church members to believe that they areWe are not a wealthy people but we are good people, and we share what we have" as Elder Andersen said in 2018, they are taking active steps to obfuscate their financial dealings in order to keep members thinking the church needs their money. Combining long-only-constrained factor sub-portfolios is generally not a mean-variance-efficient way to capture expected factor returns. The church along with our investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, have only recently been made aware of allegations brought forward by a former Ensign Peak employee, said Doug Andersen, a church spokesman. We have not seen the actual document in question; however, it appears they are dated allegations. Circuit Court of Appeals. I mean it's just so nonsensical that I can't believe they even try that line of thinking, but when you're caught with your hand in the cookie jar you say whatever you can to get out of the situation. A closer analysis of Ensign Peaks latest disclosures show that beyond big name stocks, technology in a variety of forms accounts for up to 27% of all its shares worth nearly $13.3 billion. Roger G. Clarke Huntsman seeks to recover his tithing funds that were fraudulently obtained by the LDS Corporation, the lawsuit stated. All rights reserved. Staff members at EPA needed to be in good standing with the church to work at the investment firm in downtown Salt Lake City. This is a very interesting poll, because it implies that the more active in the church you are, the less transparent you want them to be. The members who take their tithing money and donate it to local animal shelters, food pantries, or children's programs are doing the work that the church claimed to be doing when demanding 10% of every member's income. Roger has published a variety of articles and articles about tactical asset allocation and currency management. Bouncing back since early 2020, Ensign Peak has posted quarterly gains of between $2.4 billion and $6.9 billion. Back to the article: Others may not be as concerned. The issue is what happens before that. This new memorandum to the U.S. Senate clarifies and follows up on his complaint about EPA. According to the complaint, Ensign's president, Roger Clarke, has told others that the amassed funds would be used in the event of the second coming of Christ. That result also would encourage fraudulent claims of exempt status and weaken tax administration within the tax-exempt sector generally, and within non-exempt religious organizations in particular.. No organization that truly exists to help every child of God would create over a dozen shell companies to make sure the world can never find out what they have, and no organization that tells you that you will be eternally separated from your family unless you keep giving 10% to them is worth your devotion. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. And those companies might consider it an honor when a morally and financially scrutinizing investor such as EPA buys shares. When the Great Recession hit, however, officials said the church trimmed the budget rather than tap its reserves.". In concert with coauthors Steven Thorley and Harin de Silva they have published material over the years about the use of derivatives in investment management, low volatility portfolios, constraints and the fundamental law of active management, long/short portfolio construction, pure factor portfolios and efficient factor investing. Harindra de Silva. The churchs governing First Presidency made up of church President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors, Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring rejected any allegation of fraudulent behavior, insisting in a news release that the faith complies with all applicable law governing our donations, investments, taxes and reserves.. Beyond tech, Ensign Peaks top holdings read like a typical blue chip roster: J.P. Morgan, Merck, Berkshire Hathaway and Intel. In downtown Salt Lake City the fund could be used in the event of economic! As an institutional investor in private equity institutions a research collaborator with Wells Fargo Asset Management WFAM. More than ten years on the faculty of the Marriott School of Business fund could be in... And press releases from those publicly traded companies investments in prominent hedge funds to recover his tithing funds were. Faculty of the Marriott School of Business those organizations will not only help in... 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