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According to files compiled by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the founder of the world’s largest
Christian television network financed his endeavor with the assistance of
numerous international criminal organizations.
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Documents
obtained by MuckRock show that the FBI was investigating Trinity Broadcasting
Network and its founder, Paul Crouch, for being in communication with the
infamous Bronx mafia figure, Vincent Gigante, with regards to a “narcotics
transfer of funds,” which is how the FBI classifies money-laundering.
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In
another document, Crouch is listed alongside Reverend Earl Paulk and Oral
Roberts as “anti-Semitic white supremacists [who] were supposedly receiving
funds from the [Palestinian Liberation Organization] to ‘‘run guns’’ via an
“Islamic Education Center” in Baltimore,
Maryland. Both of these
investigations were tagged as relating to “financial flow” involving narcotics.
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Crouch
and the Tustin, California-based Trinity Broadcasting Network he founded have
come under fire in the past for “the prosperity gospel” that is preached on the
network, which promises immediate material rewards to viewers who donate
generously.
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In
2010, the network was sued by the founder’s granddaughter, Brittany Koper, and
another relative, Joseph McVeigh, who claimed that Paul Crouch and his wife
Janice were using donations to finance their extravagant lifestyle. They
accused Crouch of using money acquired during “Praise-a-thons” to fund “sham
loans,” which were then used by the Crouches to pay for “an $8m Hawker jet
aircraft purchased by Trinity Broadcasting for the personal use of director
Janice Crouch” and “multiple mansions and motor vehicles, including a $100,000
motor home purchased by Trinity Broadcasting as a mobile residence for director
Janice Crouch’s dogs.”
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The
FBI file on Paul Crouch was released after his death in 2013.