Warren Throckmorton was one of the first to break this story. Read here:
IRS and Postal Service Agents On Scene at Benny Hinn’s Office (UPDATED with Photos, Video) (Cached)
April 26, 2017
Where in the World is Benny Hinn? (Cached)
April 27, 2017
After IRS Raid, Benny Hinn Ministries Claims Full Cooperation with Governmental Entities (Cached)
April 27, 2017
Two comments from Patheos stand out:
“IRS Criminal Investigation Divison and the US Postal Service. Truckloads of boxes will be retreived. This case will take a while to assemble and prosecute. The only way the feds would commit these kinds of resources is if there are tens of millions to be forfeited.
The postal service would have authority to enforce fraudulent inducements to donate via US mail. The diversion of funds from intended purpose to personal luxuries (inurement) is bound to be a key feature of this investigation[…]”
Source: Bacon_Crispy, IRS and Postal Service Agents On Scene at Benny Hinn’s Office (UPDATED with Photos, Video), Patheos, Published 27/04/2017. [Link]
“Truckloads it is. The news crews are still out there at 10:30pm. They are showing carts stacked 6′ high and about 4′ wide filled with boxes being carted into the moving trucks. The IRS said they will likely be there late into the night. I’m not sure what will be left in that building when they are done, but this doesn’t appear to be a simple case about one or two issues.
One of the earlier news reports stated that they had heard speculation that this raid was tied to the money Hinn had raised to build his big World Healing Center in Irving, TX. From 1999 to 2002 Hinn told his followers that the Lord ordered this center to be built and based on this “command” Hinn raised the $30M needed to build the center, then promptly announced that the Lord had told him now wasn’t the right time. Hinn stated he did offer refunds, but others, including watchdog groups, said he kept the $30M and used it to fund lavish lifestyles for himself, his friends and family[…]”
Source: GWInsida, IRS and Postal Service Agents On Scene at Benny Hinn’s Office (UPDATED with Photos, Video), Patheos, Published 27/04/2017. [Link]
Bud Ahlheim from Pulpit & Pen also wrote this important piece on this developing situation:
Feds Raid Benny Hinn Headquarters
Benny Hinn might just be asking himself if “this is his day” … that “day” being the one that finds him federally exposed as the fraud that the Biblically faithful already know him to be.
According to a news report coming from the Dallas NBC affiliate, Channel 5, federal authorities have initiated a raid on Benny Hinn’s Grapevine, Texas ministry headquarters. United States Postal Inspectors, as well as IRS criminal investigators, are involved in the execution of the search warrant.
Channel 5’s website notes that their “crews saw a large number of agents walking in and out of the offices with boxes” but that “investigators would not say what they are looking for or even confirm that they are investigating Hinn.”
Though the Scripturally-malnourished followers of the charlatan might lack sufficient grounds to assert otherwise, we can be certain that the feds are not on the property searching for a sorely needed emergency healing.
Hinn is no stranger to brushes with federal investigations, having been one of several high profile “ministries” targeted by a 2007 Senate Finance Committee inquiry. That investigation found the government focusing on six notable television charlatans, including Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo and Taffi Dollar, and Randy and Paula White. The Senate committee also investigated, besides Hinn, Joyce Meyer and “Bishop” Eddie Long.
Though the Senate investigation yielded no findings of wrongdoing and issued no penalties for those ministries who failed to cooperate,(*) we can be certain that whether this current federal investigation finds culpability on Hinn’s part or not, his egregious false teaching and fleecing of the naive in the name of Jesus will find full, final justice at the hands of our sword-bearing Lord.
(* – The four ministries who did not cooperate with the Senate investigation included Copeland, Dollar, White, and Long.)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23
Channel 5 reports that “The IRS criminal investigators who are on scene primarily investigate tax evasion and general fraud against the government.” The warrant was apparently executed around 9 am C.S.T. Wednesday, April 26, 2017. According to Hinn’s website, the televangelist is currently in France.
For more on Benny Hinn, please peruse our resources elsewhere on Pulpit & Pen.
Stay tuned as further information is made available from the ongoing raid.
Perhaps we’ll be able to glean whether or not Hinn has been “rendering unto Caesar,” because we certainly know he has not been “rendering unto God.” (Mark 12:17)
Source: By Bud Ahlheim, Feds Raid Benny Hinn Headquarters, Pulpit & Pen, http://pulpitandpen.org/2017/04/26/feds-raid-benny-hinn-headquarters/, Published 26/04/2017.
Categories: Benny Hinn Ministries