IN DEFENSE OF THE CHURCH (Part One of Two)
A necessary defense of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brought about, all because an habitual liar is wielding an axe he’ll never stop grinding.
In a December 17, 2019 Washington Post (WaPo) ‘expose’ that wasn’t even a bad imitation, David A, Nielsen, then 41, and a voluntarily departing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter referred to as ‘the Church’), had at some point, decided to say ‘to Hell with it!’.
Not only did he decide to go full ‘scorched earth’ on his way out the church door; this, after both his time in the church, and also as nine years as an investment fund manager for the Church’s investment fund arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, he decided to shout it from the mountain tops; this, in clear violation of his lifetime NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Would YOU hire a corporate blabbermouth?
Said NDAs are standard in that line of work. In this case, he not only violated his NDA, he sang canary to The Washington Post, which voids any claim he may have once laid to being a man of either ethics, honor, integrity, or any level of trustworthiness.
What Nielsen sought in his first attempt with WaPo, was to ‘sic’ the already-weaponized Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the Church, all to quench his thirst—as well as his deep inner lust—for revenge. To be working at Ensign Peak Advisors, he had to have been really good at investments, as the Church comes looking for people to fill these positions, and to do that, they usually start poaching that type of talent from Wall Street firms.
In addition to being professionally successful, as well as results-oriented, they also had to be church members in good standing, and approved by their bishops in order to be hired, as Ensign Peak is an auxiliary of the Church, and yes, A and B are connected, and Nielsen knew this going in, EYES WIDE OPEN.
With its day-to-day operations completely separate from the main church headquarters, as their work is done on a strictly need-to-know basis, hence the lifetime non-disclosure agreements, Ensign Peak is nonetheless both autonomous—as well as underneath the Church umbrella—especially in light of the fact that Ensign Peak’s top dog reports to the Presiding Bishop of the Church, whose principal responsibility is to oversee the temporal affairs of the Church, in addition to his ecclesiastical roles.
Nielsen KNEW about the NDAs going in, just as he did going in on Wall Street, as any church member who has ever served in a volunteer leadership position—whether presiding as a quorum or auxiliary president; or as a counselor or secretary to either—they all know whatever is discussed in confidential meeting remains sealed tighter than Fort Knox, forever, as in LIFETIME.
Unauthorized disclosure can be extremely damaging, especially to the person whose information was leaked, as well as destructive to the trust that person may once have had in local church leaders.
The thing is, is Nielsen’s sad, sorry, pathetic effort to ‘torch the Church’ and achieve his climactic goal of having the Church RAPED of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and YES, I chose my word there intentionally. The problem here, is the man forgot the first rule that both he and I learned on Day 1 in whatever business-related classes we took in school, and had drilled into us over and over again, so as to make them second nature.
He also signed an affidavit—in his effort to once again, rape the Church of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, all so he be the little tattle-tale snitch who is holding onto the vain hope he can get a reward for all this, thus exposing his puny, pathetic hide as the loser he is, thus exposing his shallow motive, in keeping with Rollins’ Rule #4, “if in doubt, follow the money…”.
Nielsen doesn’t give a rat’s about the Church; he probably never did. More than likely, he saw Ensign Peak as a means to some incalculable end. He does not have shareholder/partner status there, as it’s not an option for its people, and that after nine years, he was NOT going to be tendered such an offer.
His career there—either way—was over, so he decided ‘you know what…screw it’, maybe he could go out in a blaze of glory as he headed for the door.
After WaPo ran their piece, it got a lot of clicks and page views, but that only has so long of a shelf life; and print/online articles only go so far. Plus, with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) declining to take action indicating there was no case and rightly denying Nielsen a ‘potential payday’.
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) took a peak, determining the only thing out of kilter was modifying a reporting requirement on the Form 13F. As a result, a new requirement on Form 13F was set in place—which must now be filed quarterly instead of annually—which led the SEC, Ensign Peak and the Church to negotiate a civil penalty of $5 million dollars ($4 million against Ensign Peak, and another $1 million against the Church over the reporting requirements), with better training for compliance requirements to ensure the forms are done correctly and in a timely manner in the future, thus deflating any remaining air Nielsen may have had in his balloon.
More on this in Part Two. ***