ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) September 30, 2003 - The New York attorney general sued five former and current top telecommunications executives Monday for allegedly taking millions in profits from initial public offerings of stock without disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer alleges that Qwest Communications International Inc., WorldCom Inc., Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. and McLeod USA Inc. steered underwriting business to Salomon Smith Barney in exchange for giving the executives access to lucrative IPO shares. Once the IPO share prices soared in trading, the stocks were often sold to result in millions of dollars of personal profits for the executives, Spitzer said.

"The CEO ... was personally bought off by being given IPO allocations," Spitzer said at a Monday news conference. "Small shareholders were left holding the bag," Spitzer said.

Spitzer also said the deal presumed that Salomon Smith Barney would deliver favorable stock ratings for the executives' companies as an inducement and reward for obtaining the investment banking business.

"The spinning of hot IPO shares was not a harmless corporate perk," Spitzer said. "Instead it was an integral part of a fraudulent scheme to win new investment banking business."

The suit accuses former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers, Qwest chairman Philip Anschutz, former Qwest CEO Joseph P. Nacchio, Metromedia Fiber chairman Stephen Garofalo and former McLeod CEO Clark McLeod of failing to disclose their companies' underwriting relationship with Salomon Smith Barney as required by state law.

Ebbers allegedly made more than $11 million from several dozen IPOs in the late 1990s. Anschutz allegedly made $5 million in profits in the deals, McLeod netted more than $9 million, and Nacchio took in more than $1 million, according to the suit.

"The executives received huge perks from a vendor who sought their business," Spitzer said. "This clearly was unjust enrichment, and it violated the disclosure requirements of state law. Uninformed shareholders, meanwhile, lost millions of dollars when the stocks in the defendants companies crashed."

WorldCom, which owns the nation's second largest telephone company MCI, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Ebbers' attorney, Reid Weingarten, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bernard Ebbers, a former milkman in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was ousted in April 2002, at the age of 60, owing Worldcom $400 million in loans. The 6-foot-4-inch Canadian-born businessman, once one of the world's richest men with a fortune of $1.4 billion, adopted the town's ways. He attended shareholder meetings in jeans, cowboy boots and a bolo tie, and started the sessions with a prayer -- a sure winner in the heart of America's Bible Belt.

The ousted chief executive of a giant telecommunications company rocked with an accounting scandal told his congregation on Sunday that he was innocent of wrongdoing. Appearing at Easthaven Baptist Church in Brookhaven, Miss., as usual to teach Sunday school and attend the morning worship service, Bernard Ebbers made his first public comments about WorldCom since the disclosure of $3.8 billion in improper accounting last week, "The Wall Street Journal" reported."I just want you to know you aren't going to church with a crook," Ebbers addressed the congregation at the end of the service.

Now, amid tidal waves of bad publicity over WorldCom's admission of billions of dollars in accounting shenanigans and possible bankruptcy, Clinton residents are keeping their fingers crossed that Ebbers comes out clean. Bernard Ebbers still owes Worldcom $400 million in loans that were obtained under dubious circumstances! But he still gets an annual severance pay of $15 million.

The Other Baptist CEO Thieves

It is a fact that Rev. Jesse Jackson has never worked a day in his life in the private sector, has a net personal worth of over 4 million dollars and directly controls four non-profit organizations. It had been alleged that Rev. Jackson, a Baptist minister, has been siphoning money from these organization to support his wealth! These allegation of financial impropriety turned out to be true when the media reported in January 2001 that using the ministry funds over the course of seven years Pentecostal Jim Bakker paid his lady friend only about one- half ($265,000) of what Baptist Jackson admitted to paying his mistress in two years ($472,000) -- and about one-third of what the National Enquirer reported Jackson has paid ($640,000).

Immediately after he was forced to own up to the love child (the National Enquirer had DNA evidence), Jackson pledged to withdraw from public life to "revive my spirit and reconnect with my family." For a few days, the airwaves were bristling with accounts of the Rev. Jesse's Jackson's deep suffering and his "trial of tears."

God's grace worked fast: After taking the weekend off, Jesse Jackson was back in action this week, just in time for a lucrative Wall Street shakedown. It's not as if he had done something really bad, like support a reduction in marginal tax rates.

The woman whose out-of-wedlock child was fathered by Jesse Jackson said that the civil rights leader dropped a possible third run for the White House in 2000 partly because of the scandal.

Karin Stanford, a one-time aide in Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition Washington office, also said her relations with Jackson have become strained since she took him to court to firm up child support arrangements. Jackson, she said, has seen his now 2-year-old daughter only once in the past seven months.

We have seen Rev. Jesse Jackson shake down Toyota, which had Toyota Motor Sales USA agreeing to spend nearly $8 billion over 10 years to increase minority participation in the company. Conservative groups who say Jackson continues a "shameless" pattern of "shaking down "corporate America for" private gain are attacking him.

Billy Graham has become a god to Southern Baptists and Evangelicals when to others he is a liar, a thief and a con artist demonstrated by his taking total compensation of over $500,000 annually for the last ten years and not disclosing it to his donors while working less than fifty percent of the time.

His money did not come from God but from the public. His non-profit tax exemption did not come from God but from the public. Lying Lyons supporters argued that if his board approved something that it was all right. But that is not what the Judge who convicted and sentenced Lyons to jail said.

So why are Rev. Jesse Jackson or Southern Baptist Evangelist Billy, Ned or Franklin Graham Hiding Their Total Compensation? How about their friends?

We all know that Billy Graham's favorite verse in the bible is John 3:16 but very few know that his worst verse is John 3:19- 20

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." John 3:19-21

It is a fact that Jesse Jackson, Billy, Franklin and Ned Graham and Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest their deeds should be exposed. And that is why Billy Franklin and Ned Graham and all chairmen of religious non-profit organizations in America hide their total compensation from their donors and the public. So much for there perceived integrity and their real hypocrisy?

Billy Graham (born in 1918) has Parkinson's disease, a progressive nervous disorder that has already made it impossible for him to drive a car or write by hand. Graham, an ordained Southern Baptist (SBC), heads a $100 million a year evangelistic empire, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) (Graham is now paid $101,250 The BGEA also operates a 1,500 acre training center, "The Cove," located in Asheville, North Carolina. The Cove was started in 1987 and includes an inn and a Cove camp for youths ages 9-15. Approximately 5-10,000 adults are trained there annually in Graham-style evangelism.

Graham's magazine, Decision, reaches 1.7 million people, his column appears in more than 100 newspapers, his radio program is on 700 stations worldwide, and several of his books have been best-sellers. (Angels, published in 1975, sold one million copies in just 90 days.) Graham has reportedly preached to over 200 million people and once claimed that precisely 2,874,082 of them have stepped forward to "accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior" (11/15/93, Time magazine). Former President Bush called Graham "America's pastor." Harry Truman called him a "counterfeit" and publicity seeker. Pat Boone considers him "the greatest man since Jesus." Still another says Graham "has done more harm to the cause of Christ than any other living man." Who's correct

Franklin Graham has taken a firmer grasp of the reins at his father's Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). The younger Graham has been appointed president of the organization, succeeding John R. Corts who retired last month after 35 years with the ministry.

President and chairman of Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief organization based in Boone, N.C., Franklin Graham became chief executive officer of the BGEA in 2001. He has served on the board for more than 20 years and became first vice chairman in 1995.

It's the law of the land that all non profit chairman of corporations must reveal their total salary and that Billy, Ned and Franklin do not speak volumes of their hypocrisy, especially considering the fact that the Tampa Tribune reported: Although Billy Graham encourages religious leaders to be open about their salaries and publish their finances, Howard-Browne would not disclose what he earns. He says his salary is determined by his board of directors, which is comprised of four pastors, himself and his wife. The couple does not vote on his salary. ``People get hung up on the figure,'' he says. ``But they don't take everything into account. I don't get a housing or clothing allowance. We take our kids on the road and that's very expensive.''

Not good enough, says Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability in Washington. Revival Ministries International is not among its 925 members. ``When you hold yourself out as a public trust, it's just good practice to be open about your finances,'' he says. ``If you're not forthright, you leave a question in the minds of your potential givers.''

For the past five years, the ministry has been audited by Katz & Kamm, a Baltimore accounting firm. But the tax-exempt church association is not required to open its books to the public. `While I applaud them for getting the audit, I would strongly suggest they go one step further and make their records public,'' Nelson says.

SO WHY ARE BILLY GRAHAM AND HIS FAMILY MEMBERS NOT OPEN ABOUT THEIR FINANCES AND TOTAL COMPENSATION? Although in theory Billy Graham encourages religious leaders to be open about their salaries and publish their finances. BECAUSE THEY ARE THIEVES AND HYPOCRITES!

Graham was embarrassed in 1977 when the Charlotte Observer discovered an undisclosed $23-million fund in Texas, apparently not mentioned in the accountings of the Minneapolis headquarters. Since then, anyone who requests a copy of the BGEA audit is mailed one. Graham's business manager led the formation of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability after Graham said on a national telecast, ". . . there are some charlatans coming along and the public ought to be informed about them and warned against them." (Chapter 2:The Video Vicarage Prime Time Preachers by Jeffrey K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann)

For the record, Billy Graham helped start the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a self-policing organization, and has insisted that neither he nor any other male employees of his organization meet privately with a woman other than their wives reported the St. Petersburg Times on Oct 11, 1998.
….In 1992 his ministry, Samaritan's Purse, had a run-in with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, the self-policing organization his father helped start. The ECFA suspended Samaritan's Purse while it looked into Franklin's (Graham) compensation and use of the company plane.
(FRANKIN'S REAL COMPENSATION AND PERSONAL USE OF HIS COMPANY PLANE IS STILL A REAL PROBLEM TODAY AND NED GRAHAM'S PROBLEMS HAVE PROBLEMS)

"Total Compensation" is more than your basic minimum salary. It includes everything including housekeeping, servants, cars and other perks. For Southern Baptist Billy Graham it includes the support staff and nurses who provide him with 24 hr care at his home!

Graham who has legally been stealing his full salary and other benefits for the last fifty years is unique in his special privileges in his non-profit religious organization as no other employee in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization other than Billy Graham is paid a full one hundred percent salary and is allowed to spend fifty percent of his time in bed or at the hospital.

All this brings out the fact that many prominent pastors and preachers in America are liars, thieves and even rapists who are given a clean bill of health by their dumb sheep while other facts speak differently as demonstrated by the conviction of Dr. Henry J. Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention and Senior Pastor of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida.

"President Bill Clinton would make a great evangelist, Billy Graham told U.S. News & World Report in a interview. Graham said he was impressed with Clinton's charisma and 'with some of the things he believes. ... From a biblical point of view, we should be headed in the direction of goodness and righteousness, away from crime and immorality,' Graham said, 'and towards one's neighbors who are in need. I'm encouraged by the emphasis President Clinton (a Southern Baptist) and Hillary are putting on that.'

It's a fact that Christianity Today founded by Billy Graham did not report on one of its own pastors Ollin Collins of Harvest Baptist Church in Fort Worth, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's board chairman. A man who resigned amid sexual misconducts allegations when he was accused of having sexual relationships with two women who sought counseling.

But it did report about the adultery of a black man and a National Baptist but not about the adultery of a white man and Southern Baptist. An adultery that was more hideous and gross because Collins raped unsuspecting trusting women, while Lyons adulterous relationships were consensual. It has been said that Lyons will go down in the history books as "Hugh Hefner of the New Testament." http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/US/Henry_Lyons

Now concerning the fallen hero, the church had suspended Pastor Collins with pay pending an investigation. He resigned from his board position one day after a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the women's allegations and their intent to sue. Southwestern is the world's largest evangelical seminary, with 3,000 students on eight campuses.

But of course neither the Seminary nor the Church did anything for the real female victims but they did help and console the aggressor? Just like Billy Graham stated about Bill Clinton "I forgive him . . . because I know the frailty of human nature, and especially a strong, vigorous young man like he is. "He has such a tremendous personality that I think the ladies just go wild over him." In other words it was the fault of the victims not the victimizer?

Even though a President of an Evangelical Ministry must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, and not greedy for money, Ned Graham, the son of Billy Graham, Southern Baptist minister, president East Gates International, a group that distributes Bibles in China told Christianity Today in an interview that he had abused alcohol and spent an "inappropriate amount of time" with two women on his staff.

Grace Community Church, Southern Baptist Convention, in Auburn, Washington--which counted Ned Graham, his wife, and their two sons as members established the fact that Ned Graham was an adulterer, alcoholic, wife abuser, and drug user and revoked Graham's ministerial credentials. It directed Graham to stop using the title reverend.

Yet in a style reminiscent of Jimmy Swaggart, who refused to be defrocked by the Assembly of God denomination, Ned Graham left that congregation for another church.

Most of the staff and board members of East Gates International resigned amid controversies. East Gates, in Sumner, Wash., withdrew its membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability after Ned replaced the board members with his sister Ruth Graham McIntyre, brother-in-law Stephan Tchividjian, and business leader Peter Lowe.

Graham's sister Gigi Tchividjian has joined the office staff and Ned Graham continues as East Gates president. The ECFA requires that a majority of board members not be related by blood or marriage, which is no longer the case for East Gates reported Christianity Today. A December East Gates fund-raising letter included a note from his father saying that "Ruth and I are proud of and grateful to God for our son Ned." East Gates has distributed 2 million Bibles to Christians in China, Billy Graham said, encouraging Christians to "back this unique and effective ministry."

Many prominent Baptist evangelists in America, such as Billy and Franklin Graham, belong to the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability that purports to work on behalf of the donor but in reality exists for the spenders. Although ECFA has in its possessions the total salaries of all the religious evangelical non-profit organizations that belong to it, it will not disclose them.

The Associated Baptist Press - www.abpnews.com on April 3, 2001 also reported that "About half of Baptist organizations contacted by the independent newspaper Baptists Today would not disclose salary information for their top executive. Three Southern Baptist Convention entities said policies allowed them to release only salary ranges.

Presidents Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Kenneth Hemphill of Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, declined to provide any information on compensation. New Orleans Seminary did not return numerous phone calls regarding the salary of President Charles Kelley. However, the IRS requires all colleges and universities to report the salaries of the top five paid staff members, Brumley explained."

They are all hypocrites and thieves their lack of accountability by their CEO's proves it. They are nothing but crooks and con artists and their smooth words do not change this fact! Otherwise hypocritical Baptist leader who preach integrity to others would not hide their salaries but be honest and state the "total compensation" of their five top employees, including Billy and Franklin Graham!

So it's a fact that Jesse Jackson, Billy, Ned, and Franklin Graham are not only liars but thieves and hypocrites who preach integrity to others but don't have it themselves!

John Davies
Check Out Money Changers

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/extra/bfa/baptist.html
http://www.bfafraud.com/
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