Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
Terry, I'm sure you've heard the infamous recorded phone call between Witness Lee and Sal Benoit regarding the Daystar debacle. Benoit clearly exposed the whole situation in the conversation, and yes, it was very much like a ponzi scheme, and yes, Witness Lee was at the very head of the whole thing. He held and controlled the purse strings. Basically, Lee set up a dummy company (Phosphorous in Taiwan) to evade the payment of legitimate American corporate taxes. To make matters worse (as if it could be worse) he also involved some other entity which he named "Overseas Christian Stewards" which was supposedly involved in "the Lord's work overseas". The whole thing was a huge tangled up, unethical, illegal mess that shamed the Lord's name, caused many dear saints to be shaken in their faith, and simply exposed Witness Lee as a fraud.
The recorded conversation is still up on YouTube:
Conversation Between Witness Lee and Sal Benoit concerning DayStar
This Youtube also includes the flow chart which Matt Anderson put together so that us some of us stupid, gullible Americans can get a real visual of what happened.
-
|
I'd say Daystar was a fraud, unethical, and illegal.
Daystar was very much close to being a Ponzi Scheme, but not quite. Based on the definition from:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ponzischeme.asp
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. This scam actually yields the promised returns to earlier investors, as long as there are more new investors. These schemes usually collapse on themselves when the new investments stop.
Had original Daystar investors been paid a return on their investment, then I would say yes, Daystar was a Ponzi scheme.