Even the Mormons under the eye of the SEC for keeping 100 billion investments secret
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged an investment arm of the Mormon Church with withholding information and filing misrepresentations.
Ensign Peak, a non-profit entity operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Day-After Saints, agreed to pay a $4 million fine for failing to file forms that were supposed to disclose the Church's stock investments and for instead, he filed shell company forms that concealed the Church's portfolio, as well as misrepresenting Ensign Peak's control over investment decisions, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The SEC order states that, from 1997 to 2019, Ensign Peak failed to file Form 13F, the form on which investment managers are required to disclose the value of certain securities they manage. According to the order, the Church feared that the disclosure of its portfolio, which had grown to about $32 billion in 2018, would lead to negative consequences. To conceal the size of the Church's portfolio, and with the knowledge and approval of the Church, Ensign Peak created thirteen shell LLCs, apparently located throughout the United States, and filed Form 13Fs in the names of these LLCs rather than on behalf of Ensign Peak. The order states that Ensign Peak maintained investment discretion in all relevant securities, controlled shell companies, and directed appointed "corporate managers," most of whom were employed by the Church, to sign Commission documents. The shell companies' Form 13Fs incorrectly stated, among other things, that the shell companies had sole investment and voting discretion over the securities. In reality, the SEC ruling reads, Ensign Peak retained control over all investment and voting decisions. -SEC
“We allege that the LDS Church investment manager, with the knowledge of the Church, has gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing the Church's investments, depriving the Commission and the investing public of accurate market intelligence,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC's enforcement division. "The requirement to submit timely and accurate Form 13F disclosures applies to all institutional investment managers, including non-profit and charitable organizations."
The Journal reported earlier this month that the SEC was investigating the Mormon Church after a former employee revealed in 2019 that the organization had amassed $100 billion in stakes.
The current extent of Ensign Peak's holdings remains a very close secret. The Salt Lake City-based company was incorporated in 1997. Under SEC rules, it must disclose certain types of investments, such as U.S.-listed stocks, which it manages directly, which amounted to approximately 40 billions of dollars. The remainder of the portfolio is made up of investments such as fixed income securities, private companies or funds. Ensign Peak has an estimated $100 billion in holdings in 2019.
Investment managers with at least $100 million under management publicly report their quarterly holdings. The numbers are monitored by public companies and investors. About 5,000 entities file the form, according to SEC data released in 2020. – WSJ
Ensign Peak and Church officials say they did not violate any tax laws and that the fund was a "rainy day account" to be used in difficult economic times. Sure, 100 billion is a lot to buy umbrellas.
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The article Even the Mormons under the eye of the SEC for keeping 100 billion investments secret comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/anche-i-mormoni-sotto-locchio-della-sec-per-aver-tenuto-segreti-100-miliardi-di-investimenti/ on Tue, 21 Feb 2023 20:14:58 +0000.