A man claims that the controversial Trinity Broadcasting Network — the world’s largest Christian TV network — wrongfully sued him over inexistent contracts, to retaliate after his nephew’s wife “uncovered and reported illegal distributions and other unlawful self-dealing by Trinity Broadcasting’s directors exceeding $50 million.”
Reporting for Courthouse News Service, Iulia Filip writes
Joseph McVeigh sued Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, its affiliates International Christian Broadcasting, Redemption Strategies Inc., Trinity Broadcasting’s counsel Davert & Loe, Lawyers, and three attorneys: Douglass Davert, David Loe, and Benjamin Flint III, in Orange County Superior Court.
McVeigh says he was named as a co-defendant in a complaint against his relatives, “with callous disregard for the lack of any merit in the claims being asserted against plaintiff.”
In his 20-page complaint, McVeigh says he borrowed $65,000 from Christian Broadcasting in 2010, and agreed to make monthly payments on a promissory note for 13 years. He says the loan was approved by his nephew, Michael Koper, and his wife, Brittany Koper, former Trinity Broadcasting officers.
McVeigh claims that though he was current on his payments to “Heroes Under God,” one of Trinity Broadcasting’s alter egos, the company and its affiliates and its attorneys sued him on meritless claims, as part of a campaign of retaliation against the Kopers.
“The defendants knowingly and purposefully sued plaintiff on nonexistent contracts pursuant to a malicious campaign of retaliation and intimidation aimed primarily at Trinity Broadcasting Network’s former Chief Financial Officer, Director of Finance, Corporate Treasurer, and Director of Human Resources, Brittany Koper,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff is informed, believes, and based thereon alleges that, in retaliation for objecting to, reporting, and refusing to participate in Trinity Broadcasting’s unlawful activities, Ms. Koper was fired, threatened with physical and lethal violence by Trinity Broadcasting Directors, and betrayed by her own attorneys (Davert & Loe) who filed a malicious lawsuit against Ms. Koper while representing her as counsel of record in related legal proceedings.
“In order to wrongfully pressure Ms. Koper to keep quiet about Trinity Broadcasting’s financial affairs, Ms. Koper’s own attorneys sued not only Ms. Koper in the underlying, retaliatory litigation, but also Ms. Koper’s husband and his relatives in turn. This included plaintiff, who is Ms. Koper’s husband’s mother’s brother. Plaintiff has never worked for Trinity Broadcasting or any of its affiliated companies, but he was falsely and maliciously sued on contracts that the defendants themselves later admitted (overtly and repeatedly in writing) did not exist. […]
McVeigh claims Trinity and Christian Broadcasting retaliated against the Kopers after Brittany Koper, Trinity’s former CFO and director of finance, refused to participate in and cover up Trinity Broadcasting’s directors’ illegal activities.
MVeigh, who is Koper’s uncle by marriage, alleges in his suit that Koper was promoted to head of finance because Trinity wanted somebody “within the family” who would keep its financial “skeletons” safely in the “closet.”Â
He claims Trinity Broadcasting officers and employees were involved in “(m)ultiple cover-ups of sexual and criminal scandals, including the cover-up and destruction of evidence concerning a bloody sexual assault involving Trinity Broadcasting and affiliated Holy Land Experience employees; the cover-up of director Janice Crouch’s affair with a staff member at the Holy Land Experience; the cover-up of director Paul Crouch’s use of Trinity Broadcasting funds to pay for a legal settlement with Enoch Lonnie Ford; the cover-up following director Matthew Crouch’s exposure of his genitals to cleaning staff on multiple occasions; under-the-table payments to avoid liability and punitive damages in the ongoing David Rhodes wrongful death suit, including payments funneled through All American TV, Inc., a nonprofit corporation controlled by Trinity Broadcasting’s general counsel, John Casoria; falsification of records transmitted to the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California; and the list continues.”
McVeigh is seeking damages for financial loss, attorney’s fees, loss of reputation and punitive damages.
The Orange County Register, which was the first to report the lawsuit, says
Trinity is a nonprofit in the eyes of Uncle Sam, which means it doesn’t pay taxes on its income. It reported revenue of $175.6 million, expenses of $193.7 million and net assets of $827.6 million at the end of 2010, according to its tax returns. Its highest-paid officer was Paul Crouch, with compensation of $400,000.
Koper, the Crouch granddaughter, has filed reports regarding all this with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the police, and the California State Bar detailing her accusations, her attorney, MacLeod, has said.
In an email to the Orange County Register, Trinity’s attorney Colby M. May writes
“No matter how hard Ms. Koper and her husband try to divert attention from their embezzlement and misappropriation of money, it won’t work (regardless of how many Uncle McVeighs they marshal). As I previously reported to you in the context of Ms. Koper’s suit against Davert & Loe (of which neither TBN and ICB are not parties), the outrageous, false, and unsubstantiated assertions about TBN and ICB, which are embellished in Mr. McVeigh’s suit, are untrue. The claims are nevertheless being echo-chambered in the continuing vain attempt at diversion.
In an emailed reponse, Tymothy MacLeod, attorney for Koper and McVeigh, writes:
“TBN’s spokesman, Colby May, continues to throw stones recklessly inside TBN’s crystal cathedral, but Mr. May needs to be reminded that all of the so-called ’embezzlement’ allegations against Ms. Koper and her family were dismissed in both state and federal court, with no finding of liability or wrongdoing whatsoever by Ms. Koper. Nor has Ms. Koper ever admitted to embezzlement, as Mr. May has repeatedly and falsely asserted €¦. Quite to the contrary, it is Ms. Koper who is blowing the whistle on massive allegations of financial improprieties by TBN’s directors. TBN and Colby May’s childish ‘I know you are, but what am I?’ reaction in the press to these allegations is simply evasive of the real legal questions involved in the legal malpractice and malicious prosecution lawsuits that have been filed thus far. We look forward to meeting TBN in court on these charges.”
Many Christians refer to the Trinity Broadcasting Network as The Blasphemy Channel due to the large number of heretical teachers the station hosts (not to mention the unbiblical teachings and practices promoted by Jan and Paul Crouch).
Read Josehp McVeigh’s lawsuit 
Suit: Trinity Broadcasting Network board diverted millions from ‘charitable assets’
Research resources on the Trinity Broadcasting Network