The finances of the famously closed-lipped Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are in the news again. A leaked document is making sensational claims about huge investments, nefarious bailouts and violations of the law.
Most of these allegations don’t hold water. The legal claims are weak, the “bailouts” are investments of the kind you’d see in any large portfolio, and the church has long stated that it places a portion of its revenues each year in a rainy-day fund.
The story does raise the question of why the church feels the need to be so secretive about its finances.