RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Prosecutors have accused the leader of Brazil’s most influential evangelical church of diverting millions of dollars in untaxed donation money to personal and business interests.
The fraud accusations against Bishop Edir Macedo, whose Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has millions of followers in Brazil and branches in more than 170 countries, were received by the Sao Paulo state justice tribunal yesterday, the public prosecutors’ office said in a statement.
Macedo and nine other people linked to the church are accused of using religious donations, which are strongly encouraged in its services, to invest in real estate, cars and jewelry, as well as Macedo’s businesses, which include Brazil’s second-biggest television network, Rede Record.
“For the prosecutors, it is proven that the donation money, instead of being used for the maintenance of services, was diverted to the private interests of the accused,” the Sao Paulo state public prosecutors’ office said.
The statement accused Macedo and the nine others of money laundering and the formation of an illegal group.
The prosecutors allege that part of the around $1.4 billion per year in tax-free donations was sent to offshore tax havens and brought back into Brazil through two front companies. They said 71 million reais ($38 million) was brought through the two companies in 2004 and 2005.
Officials at the Universal Church could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper quoted lawyers for the church as saying the two companies’ accounts had been approved by tax authorities and that they were not fake.
Protestant evangelical churches, with a personalized brand of salvation and financial self-improvement that is attractive to the poor, have tripled their membership in the past 30 years in Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic nation.
Macedo, 64, was raised a Catholic and went on to found the first Universal Church in Rio de Janeiro in 1977 after starting out by preaching at a park shelter. As well as the television station, the church now has 4,500 worship centers in Brazil and its own political party.
Critics have long accused Macedo and other evangelicals of taking advantage of the poor by encouraging large donations and promising miraculous healing or financial windfalls.
It is not the first time evangelical leaders in Brazil have been accused of financial wrongdoing.
The couple who founded the The Reborn in Christ Church, which has Brazilian soccer star Kaka among its followers, were arrested in Miami in 2007 for failing to declare more than $50,000 in cash brought into the United States. ($=1.85 reais)