SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 23, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — James Huntsman, brother of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr., on Monday filed a fraud lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alleging that the Church spends tithing money from its members on commercial ventures rather than charity.
On Tuesday, LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins shared his response with Gephardt Daily. It reads, in full:
“Mr. James Huntsman resigned his Church membership last year. Now, he is demanding through his lawyers that tithing he paid to the Church as charitable contributions be returned to him. He claims that, contrary to assurances made by past Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, the Church used tithing to build City Creek, a mixed use commercial development across the street from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City.
“In fact, tithing was not used on the City Creek project. As President Hinckley said in the April 2003 General Conference of the Church, the funds came from ‘commercial entities owned by the Church’ and the ‘earnings of invested reserve funds.’ A similar statement was made by President Hinckley in the October 2004 General Conference. Mr. James Huntsman’s claim is baseless.
“Tithing funds are voluntary contributions by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an expression of their faith in God. They are used for a broad array of religious purposes, including missionary work, education, humanitarian causes and the construction of meetinghouses, temples and other buildings important to the work of the Church, as reflected in scripture and determined by Church leaders.”
James Huntsman, son of the late billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman, Sr., filed the suit in federal court. James Huntsman v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints says the Church’s alleged commercial use of tithing funds amounts to fraud.
The lawsuit
The lawsuit reads, in part, “While the Church is obviously entitled to its religious beliefs (which Mr. Huntsman is not challenging through this lawsuit), the LDS Corporation is not entitled to defraud the Church’s congregation,” the lawsuit says, in part. “Consequently, this is not a case about faith; it is a case about fraud and corporate greed.
“For decades, in a fraudulent effort to elicit the donation of tithing funds from Mr. Huntsman and other devout Church members, the LDS Corporation repeatedly and
publicly lied about the intended use of those funds, promising that they would be used for
purely non-commercial purposes consistent with the Church’s stated priorities – namely,
to fund missionary work, member indoctrination, temple work, and other educational and
charitable activities.
“Behind the scenes, however, rather than using tithing funds for the promised purposes, the LDS Corporation secretly lined its own pockets by using the funds to develop a multi-billion dollar commercial real estate and insurance empire that had nothing to do with charity.
“The LDS Corporation’s misrepresentations to Mr. Huntsman and the Church’s other members concerning the intended use of tithing funds were numerous and
well-documented. Indeed, the LDS Corporation repeatedly and specifically
misrepresented that tithing funds would not be used for the commercial development of
the City Creek Mall, a for-profit shopping center in downtown Salt Lake City Utah, or for
the bailout of a failing private insurance company, Beneficial Life Insurance.
“These misrepresentations, repeated publicly by the LDS Corporation and its
agents, over and over again for a period of nearly two decades, were outright lies.”
As damages for himself, Huntsman’s lawsuit seeks damages including the $5 million for general and special damages, costs of the suit incurred, interest, and “for such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”
