Tax Problems
In 1996, an Internal Revenue Service investigation into Grant's ministry resulted in Grant's imprisonment for tax evasion. He was found guilty of failing to report $375,000 in taxable income in the purchase of two homes, including his $1 million residence. An undercover video tape was alleged to show Grant admitting that he used $100,000 in 1988 from church members as a down payment on a $1.2 million home overlooking a Desoto, Texas, country club and not reporting it as income. Judge Joe Kendall criticized Grant for attempting to withdraw his plea, asking Grant, "Did you watch the same videotape I watched?" He continued, "He's all over it admitting he's guilty. He swore to God under oath he is guilty". The judge sentenced Grant to 16 months in prison and a $30,000 fine, to be paid after his release, when he would also serve an additional year of probation. Kendall also ordered Grant to "perform 100 hours of community service, publish details of his arrest and sentence for everyone on his mailing list and provide complete, continuing financial reports to the court."
His wife was indicted on charges of blocking the IRS and evading taxes. Though she initially pleaded guilty, the judge allowed her to withdraw the plea and she was later acquitted. Following the conviction, Grant transferred the Eagles Nest Cathedral facility to T. D. Jakes, also a televangelist, who renamed it "The Potter's House".
Read more about this topic: W. V. Grant
Famous quotes containing the words tax and/or problems:
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 18:13.
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)