Granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, Brittany Koper, Is Suing TBN and Two Lawyers Who Work with TBN

Slaughter of the Sheep has this on the suit:

An article in the Christian Post reveals that Brittany B. Koper, granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, is suing her former attorneys for “breach of duties, inflicting emotional distress and professional negligence.” Apparently the attorneys advised her to help cover up financial abuse and fraud at TBN.

After Koper took charge of TBN’s finance department, she allegedly discovered illegal financial practices on the part of the company’s directors, but was told to protect the information.

“Following her appointment, Ms. Koper was specifically instructed to falsify public financial disclosures, to falsify government records, and to otherwise cover up conduct of the TBN Companies and their directors that Ms. Koper reasonably believed to be unlawful,” the suit claims.

None of this is surprising, but if the allegations are true, it’s going to be hard for a lot of people to turn a deaf ear to someone as close to the family as a grandchild. Many will still defend them and claim this attack is from the devil, …

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One News Now has this story on TBN being sued:

The world’s leading Christian broadcasting network is being accused of illegally handing out over $50 million in assets to the network’s directors.

The granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, the founders of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), is making the accusation. According to The Orange County Register, Brittany Koper is suing two lawyers who work with TBN — not her grandparents directly — for negligence and for breaking their “fiduciary duty and other transgressions.” The network’s leaders have often fallen under scrutiny concerning how they are able to afford lavish mansions, a $50-million jet, and private chauffeurs.

Koper has worked for TBN and has served as the director of finance, director of human resources, and chief financial officer for Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana. She says when she was appointed to TBN’s finance department, she allegedly found that the company had made illegal financial decisions, but she was told to fabricate public disclosures to cover up the tracks. Koper asserts that the two attorneys named in the suit encouraged her to do as she was told.

When she reported the situation, Koper and her husband were fired and accused of being “just as guilty” as the TBN leaders.

Douglass S. Davert is a Long Beach attorney named in the suit. He tells The OC Register that Koper’s allegations are “outright fiction and wholly without merit.” His legal group reportedly filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Koper and her husband were the ones who were engaged in the questionable conduct. Davert’s lawsuit accused the two of fabricating documents and misusing roughly $400,000. That case was dismissed earlier this year.

Koper’s attorney argues that she was fired for inside whistleblowing, so she is preparing to present documents that back her allegations. Meanwhile, Davert asserts that he and the other named attorney will “defend themselves vigorously” when the allegations are made public.

Koper will submit the documents to the Internal Revenue Service for further investigation.

And this from Religion News Blog:

The granddaughter of Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul and Jan Crouch has accused the world’s largest Christian broadcaster of unlawfully distributing charitable assets worth more than $50 million to the company’s directors.

The Orange County Register reports:

The charges are leveled in a federal lawsuit filed by Crouch granddaughter Brittany Koper last week against her former lawyers, who also do legal work for TBN.

“Observers have often wondered how the Crouches can afford multiple mansions on both coasts, a $50 million jet and chauffeurs,” said Tymothy MacLeod, Koper’s attorney. “And finally, with the CFO coming forward, we have answers to those questions.”

Koper had served as chief financial officer, director of finance, corporate treasurer and director of human resources for Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, which does business as Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), according to the suit.

Koper’s complaint is not directed against her grandparents or TBN — but against the two attorneys who handle some of TBN’s legal work, and who once worked for Koper herself. She accuses them of professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and other transgressions in the suit.

Koper was using these attorneys for her personal affairs, and she went to them with her suspicions over the legality of the payments to TBN’s directors, only to be told to shut up, return everything she had earned through TBN to the company, and be gone, according to the suit. […more…]

Koper’s complaint is for

✦Breach of Fiduciary Duties
✦Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, and
✦Professional Negligence

In her complaint Koper also accuses attorney Douglass S. Davert of Davert & Loe in Long Beach, California of lewd behavior toward her. The complaint says he ‘touched her in an overtly sexual manner repeatedly, told Ms. Koper that he was sexually aroused, made lewd and derogatory comments about engaging in sexual acts with Ms. Koper, and offered illegal drugs to Ms. Koper.

In 2009, Koper’s attorney Tymothy McLeod represented Brian Dugger, a gay broadcast engineer who sued the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 2009, claiming he was harassed and discriminated against by TBN employees as well as Paul Crouch Jr. A confidential settlement in the case was reached in 2010.

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