Holy Rover!

Trinity Broadcasting Network's financials continue to unravel:

The Trinity Broadcasting Network, which bills itself as the world's largest Christian network, is embroiled in a legal battle involving allegations of massive financial fraud and lavish spending, including the purchase of a $100,000 motor home for family dogs.

Brittany Koper, a former high-ranking TBN official and the granddaughter of its co-founder, Paul Crouch Sr., was fired by the network in September after discovering "illegal financial schemes" amounting to tens of millions of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court....

The lawsuit alleges that Paul Crouch Sr. obtained a $50-million Global Express luxury jet for his personal use through a "sham loan," and that TBN funds paid for a $100,000 motor home for dogs owned by his wife, Janice Crouch, a network director.

The suit also alleges that TBN bought residences across the country for its directors under the pretext that they were "guest homes" or "church parsonages." The properties include mansions used by the Crouch family in Newport Beach; side-by-side mansions in Windermere, Fla.; and homes in Nashville; Miami; and Irving, Texas, according to the suit.

TBN directors received about $300,000 to $500,000 in meal expenses and the use of chauffeurs, and oversaw "fraudulent donation and kickback schemes involving third party 'ministries'" the network controlled, the suit claims.

The directors also misused funds to cover up sexual scandals, the suit claims.

It took a lot of little old ladies' pension checks to pay for all of that. I don't find any of this surprising - the whole thing has seemed fishy for a long time.

I've mentioned previously that I was there back in the early 70's the day they dedicated their new Tustin TV studios, and as a gas pump jockey in '73-'74 I used to wait on Jan Crouch when she'd bring her Cadillac into the car wash where I worked.  A lot of people fell for their schtick, but I never could get rid of the feeling that things were not right over at TBN.  It just took them a little longer to go the way their former partner Jim Bakker went at PTL.