UNSHOCKING: Prosperity Gospel Televangelists Are Ripoff Artists

Here's just a little of what the New York Times says about televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch.

Mr. and Mrs. Crouch have his-and-her mansions one street apart in a gated community here, provided by the network using viewer donations and tax-free earnings. But Mrs. Crouch, 74, rarely sleeps in the $5.6 million house with tennis court and pool. She mostly lives in a large company house near Orlando, Fla., where she runs a side business, the Holy Land Experience theme park. Mr. Crouch, 78, has an adjacent home there too, but rarely visits. Its occupant is often a security guard who doubles as Mrs. Crouch’s chauffeur. The lavish perquisites, corroborated by two other former TBN employees, include additional, often-vacant homes in Texas and on the former Conway Twitty estate in Tennessee, corporate jets valued at $8 million and $49 million each and thousand-dollar dinners with fine wines, paid with tax-exempt money.

Here's the part you may find the most infuriating.

Ms. Koper and the two other former TBN employees also said that dozens of staff members, including Ms. Koper, chauffeurs, sound engineers and others had been ordained as ministers by TBN. This allowed the network to avoid paying Social Security taxes on their salaries and made it easier to justify providing family members with rent-free houses, sometimes called “parsonages,” she said.

In case you're wondering why Mr. and Mrs. Crouch maintain separate side-by-side luxury mansions in multiple cities, I remind you of this.

In September 2004 the Los Angeles Times reported that in 1998 Crouch paid Enoch Lonnie Ford, a former employee, a $425,000 formal settlement to end a wrongful termination lawsuit. At that time it was reported that Crouch had had a homosexual encounter with Ford. TBN officials acknowledge the settlement, but contested the credibility of Ford who is a convicted felon.

$100 Carry-On Fee

Remember how I've bitched about Spirit Airlines? Check this.

Putting a bag in the overhead bin will soon cost some Spirit Airlines passengers $100. That's more than they may have paid for their tickets. The Miramar, Fla., airline currently charges $45 for a carry-on bag. As of Nov. 6, customers who wait to pay the fee at the boarding gate will fork over $100. Any bag that needs to fit in the overhead bin is considered a carry-on. A small bag that fits under the seat is free. The price for a carry-on paid for at an airport kiosk will increase to $50 from $40.

You might recall that Spirit is fighting a recent federal ruling that airlines must fully disclose all fees and taxes with their advertised fares.

Christian Network Accused Of $50M Ripoff

The world's largest Christian television network, Trinity Broadcasting, has been accused of funneling $50 million in viewer donations to the company's directors. Freak show televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch (above) are the global faces of the network.

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, according to the suit. Koper's complaint is not directed against her grandparents or TBN – but against the two attorneys who handle some TBN 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.

RELATED: In 2010 Paul Crouch Jr., the son of the network's founder, was forced to settle a sexual harassment suit filed by a gay male employee who claimed that Crouch had taunted him with female pornography and had told co-workers that he has a "mangina." The details of that settlement were not made public. In 1994 the network paid a settlement of $425,000 to a man who claimed that he was forced have sex with Paul Crouch, Sr. in order to keep his job.

NEW YORK: Church Rakes In $150K From Federal Anti-Terrorism Fund

Claiming that they are at risk of a terrorist attack, a Long Island evangelical church that regularly broadcasts an anti-Muslim radio show was granted $150,000 from a Homeland Security fund. The money, they say, will be used to add video surveillance and other security features. Lots of groups are raking in the dough from the fund and even the wingnuts are pissed.

"It's ridiculous," James Carafano, a security expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said of some of the grants. "It makes no sense." Carafano says the entire grant program has little value and would be better spent on active counterterrorism efforts. Henry Willis at the Rand Corp. also takes issue with the spending. "We haven't done a good job of understanding how our investments in these programs come together to increase our capability," Willis said. Hundreds of New York nonprofits got $18.9 million of the $2 billion nationwide total because they were deemed to be at "high risk" of terrorist attack. The money, usually $75,000 a group, is supposed to pay for equipment such as security cameras and metal detectors.

Today In Health Store Hooey

As I've said here before, almost every item for sale in so-called health food stores is complete hooey that at best merely gives you rather expensive urine. And according to a massive study just published, even taking multivitamins has no apparent benefit to your lifespan.

Women taking multivitamins live no longer than those who don't take the pills, and might actually die sooner, a huge new study has found. The study involved about 39,000 women who were between the ages of 55 and 69 when the study began and were tracked for 19 years. During that time, about 40 per cent of them died. When the researchers looked at who took vitamins, those who chose multivitamins had a slightly higher risk of death than those who took no supplements at all. The same was found for women who regularly took iron, vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium, zinc and copper.

The study's authors add that "the growing body of research that has emerged in recent years that suggests that vitamins might not help to prevent disease, and perhaps, might actually increase the risk of death." It's all about your actual food, folks.

$5 ATM Fees?

Yes.

The Star Trek IMAX Ripoff

Some Star Trek buffs are pissed after paying $17 to see the movie in IMAX at AMC's flagship Times Square megaplex, only to find a normal size screen. The flap really got rolling earlier this week when actor/comedian Aziz Ansari went ballistic on his blog, describing how AMC management refused to refund his ticket. The CEO of IMAX has weighed in, essentially calling Ansari a crybaby. IMAX has been "expanding the brand" into several normal sized theaters around the country.

Wikipedia has a detailed and complicated explanation of the technical aspects to an IMAX presentation, which requires that special cameras be used in the filming. Which weren't used for Star Trek, although the film was digitally remastered using IMAX technology "that eliminates grain, digital artifacts, increases contrast and brightness." But all that is hooey to folks who go in expecting the giant screen.

Multivitamins Do Nothing

According to the largest study ever done on multivitamin users, there is no apparent health benefit to those horse pills.

The largest study ever conducted in post-menopausal women has found “convincing evidence” that multivitamin use has “little or no influence” on the risk of common cancers, cardiovascular disease or dying from any cause in post-menopausal women. The research involved 161,808 American women, age 50 to 79, who are part of the ongoing Women’s Health Initiative, the largest study of women’s health. A total of 41.5 per cent of the women used multivitamins. The most popular was a multivitamin with minerals. The women were enrolled in the trial between 1993 and 1998. After an average eight years of followup, researchers found no evidence multivitamins either increased or decreased the risk of cancers of the breast (invasive), colon/rectum, endometrium, ovary, kidney, bladder, stomach or lung. They also found no significant effect on the risk of heart attack, stroke and blood clots in the veins. There was also no association between multivitamin use and total mortality.

The same article notes this:

In November, researchers who have been following 15,000 male doctors for 10 years reported that vitamin E and C supplements have no effect on the risk of heart attacks, stroke, cardiovascular death, cancer or congestive heart failure in middle-aged and older men. They did find an increase in hemorrhagic stroke with vitamin E use.

Meanwhile this $8B annual ripoff industry rolls on.