K.P. Yohannan – Page 21 – Warren Throckmorton

ECFA Report: Leaders of Gospel for Asia Claim Millions Went to Hong Kong Bank Instead of Indian Field Ministries

A question Gospel for Asia has steadfastly refused to address is the location of nearly $130 million in donor funds claimed in U.S. audits to have been sent to India. What shows up in Indian public records doesn’t match what is claimed on U.S. audits. The report of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability’s investigation into financial matters at GFA reveal a new claim by GFA about at least some of those dollars, but ultimately leaves the matter unanswered.
Previously, donors have told me that GFA leaders said I had missed funds sent to Indian states other than Kerala. Reviewing the FC-6 forms of all other Indian states, I came to a dead end. No other state records reported the receipt of any funds from the U.S. GFA office to any known GFA affiliate. I have also heard that GFA claims to send funds to two other unnamed charities in India. However, GFA has refused to provide any specifics.
In the GFA report, another claim is made:

15. Alleged missing funds according to Indian FC6 forms. ECFA received allegations that a significant amount of funds were missing based on attempts to reconcile GFA’s audited financial statements and field partner’s Indian FC6 forms. ECFA reviewed this matter to determine compliance with ECFA Standard 4. On July 20, GFA staff provided ECFA with a reconciliation of these amounts, which reflected a transfer of $29,300,000 to a GFA India account in Hong Kong. GFA staff reported that this transfer was not required to be reported on Indian FC6 forms and that this amount along with fiscal year timing differences led to the allegations of significant missing funds.

The way this paragraph is written gives me the impression that ECFA took GFA’s word that these funds did not have to be reported in India. This assumption is problematic and raises other troubling questions. GFA told the ECFA that just over $29 million which GFA claimed in their American audit was sent to GFA India actually went to a GFA India account in Hong Kong.
I do not know India law well enough to express an confident opinion on this claim. I don’t accept GFA’s claim at face value. While I intend to look into it, the claim raises additional questions. Since the funds were sent to GFA India for use in India, why would those funds be exempt from reporting? If GFA uses those funds in India as promised to donors and claimed in the American audit, eventually the money would have to be reported to the Indian government via the FC-6 forms. No matter where the money is parked once it leaves the donor, it will eventually need to be documented in India as a foreign contribution, if indeed it is ever sent to India. Over eight years, the best estimate I have seen is that $128 million is not accounted for. The ECFA investigation apparently only looked into the activities in one calendar year.
The claim about fiscal year timing differences is a distraction. Since the FC-6 forms requires a precise date of receipt to be reported, Jason Watkins and I have been able to take the timing of transfers into account.
That’s it. the ECFA investigators were not told stories about other Indian organizations receiving GFA funds. Apparently, there were no claims about sending money to other states in India. Staff and leaders who provided these spurious explanations to staff and donors did not provide the same reasons to the ECFA.
Just after being terminated from ECFA membership, GFA told the public that “no findings of money missing” came from the ECFA investigation. Having the ECFA report, it is clear that ECFA did not thoroughly examine multiple years of discrepancies between what GFA said they sent to India and what was reported in India to the government. Furthermore, the ECFA apparently took GFA’s word that funds deposited in Hong Kong satisfied GFA’s claim that those funds went to GFA India and did not require reporting to the Indian government. ECFA did not independently verify this claim.
In any case, I hope that staff and donors can now put to rest the false stories advanced by some within GFA (i.e., money sent to other states or other ministries) and concentrate on the big secret GFA has been protecting for months. I challenge GFA to produce chapter and verse in Indian law which exempts foreign contributions from disclosure if those funds are first deposited to banks outside of India. GFA will also need to provide documentation about the large and growing discrepancies over the past decade.

Former Gospel for Asia Board Member Gayle Erwin Speaks Out, Discloses ECFA Report on GFA’s Violations of Membership Standards

In response to ongoing claims from Gospel for Asia about the investigation conducted by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, former GFA board member Gayle Erwin has released a series of documents, including the report of the ECFA investigation as well as the GFA response. As is now widely known, the result of that investigation was a vote of the ECFA board to terminate GFA’s membership. I believe it is important to note that Erwin put in over 30 years of service as a board member and was cited in the original edition of K.P. Yohannan’s first book (ghostwritten by Bill Bray) as an influence.

Erwin also released correspondence which documents his efforts to bring change to GFA before he resigned. Given the lack of public accountability by GFA, these documents provide some answers to remaining questions raised by the public, GFA donors and former donors, former and current staff, and current recipients of GFA’s services.

In this post, I intend to provide links with a short description of each document. A fuller response to the ECFA investigation and GFA’s response to it will follow.

ECFA’s Report To Gospel for Asia – This report covers the results of the ECFA’s investigation into a variety of allegations. The contents provide much needed context which help make some sense of the simplistic descriptions given by GFA. Furthermore, the contents vindicate much of my reporting here.

GFA’s Response to ECFA’s Report – GFA replied to the ECFA report with additional information and promises to make changes. From my vantage point, the promised changes were small compared to the magnitude of the problems. Apparently, the ECFA agreed because the board voted to remove membership on October 2.

March 17, 2015 Letter from Gayle Erwin to K.P. Yohannan – In this letter, former GFA board member Gayle Erwin discusses his investigation of the charges brought by the GFA Diaspora. Erwin felt some of the Diaspora claims were true which upset Yohannan.

Letters of Concern from Gayle Erwin to K.P. Yohannan – It is clear in these letters that Erwin is hoping to provoke transparency and change at GFA.

Gayle Erwin’s report to GFA as assigned – This is the GFA board investigation report Erwin originally filed with the board. According to Erwin, it was significantly rewritten by K.P. Yohannan before being given to the former staff group, GFA Diaspora. In contrast to the report which GFA’s former staff members received, Erwin actually found evidence for nearly all of the claims made on this website by the former staff (GFA Diaspora). Erwin now believes that financial mismanagement claims are also true.

The report of former staff concerns actually presented to the board – According to Erwin, K.P. Yohannan rewrote this report to appear in this format. Comparing the two, one can see significant whitewashing of staff concerns.

Gayle Erwin’s Resignation Letter – How and why Erwin left the board.

Gayle Erwin’s Letter of Apology to GFA Diaspora Spokesperson J.D. Smith – Erwin’s apology to the former staff members of GFA.

There is a wealth of information here which will take several days if not weeks to unpack.

See additional information about Gayle Erwin’s communications with former staff at the GFA Diaspora site.

Update on the Shut Down of Gospel for Asia New Zealand

The story coming out of Gospel for Asia in Wills Point, TX is that the GFA affiliate in New Zealand isn’t closing, just moving.
Multiple sources have confirmed that long time GFA staff members Chris and Cindy Brewer have been deployed to NZ to salvage the office. However, it might not be that easy or clear cut.
GFA NZ Trust lists three board members on the NZ charities registry.

K.P. Yohannan is listed as a trustee and has a vote in what happens with GFA NZ. Brian Hughes is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Auckland. His views are known via the letter he sent to his church — GFA NZ is closing and nothing Yohannan does will change that. If a vote of trustees happens, it appears to come down to accountant Murray Bell. I have been unable to contact him. According to the rules of the trust, two of the three trustees can take action to oust the other trustee. Theoretically, Bell and Hughes could vote Yohannan off the GFA NZ island.
However, if Hughes has stepped down and fails to exercise his authority as a board member, then it becomes unclear how Bell and Yohannan proceed if they disagree about the direction of the trust.
If this trust closes, then GFA in the U.S. will need to find another New Zealander to initiate a new trust.
Given the materials filed on the NZ government website, there is reason to question the story from GFA that the NZ affiliate is simply moving. If Hughes and Bell have voted to close the charity, I can’t see how Yohannan can stop them.

Citing Radical Changes at Gospel for Asia, Calvary Chapel Auckland Pulls Support; GFA New Zealand Shuts Down

In a remarkable letter to church members dated yesterday, Calvary Chapel Auckland (NZ) disclosed that the church severed ties with Gospel for Asia and GFA’s NZ office has closed.

From: Calvary Chapel Auckland <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2015 3:16 PM
Subject: To Calvary Chapel Auckland concerning Gospel for Asia
To: Calvary Chapel Auckland <[email protected]>
Dear Church,
For approximately 17 years, Calvary Chapel Auckland has supported the work of Gospel for Asia which is now primarily The Believer’s Church.
Originally there was close alignment between Calvary Chapels generally and the work of Gospel for Asia.
However the organisational and ecclesiastical direction of Gospel for Asia has radically changed so that it is now antithetically different.
We do not believe in transubstantiation (this is supposedly that the bread actually becomes the body of Jesus, and the cup actually becomes the blood of Jesus), total submission or focus to a man, calling the leader “father,” or Priest, taking a vow of total submission to that leader and his successor for life, or crossing ourselves in a liturgy.
It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words so here are some photos, which visually depict some of the differences, but allude to many of the other contrasts that now exist: the metal image (used in Believers Churches, for all convocations, including countries other than India), the lighting of candles, the wearing of robes, etc.. The photos below are from The Believer’s Church Website and Carmel Engineering College (Believers Church own and operate this) as identified in the heading.
This group has amassed somewhere over $200,000,000.00 (one report says USD$250,000,000.00) US Dollars that are on deposit in India.
They now have an Engineering University, own a Hospital, a Rubber Plantation and other businesses that generate from $35,000,000.00 – $70,000,000.00 US Dollars annually.
The three Calvary Chapel Pastor’s who were on the GFA USA Board have all resigned after a lengthy investigation into the organization in many (if not all) of its various entities.
Brian, Gina, and Andrew Malcolm have decided their season of serving – 12 years now, of sacrificial, dedicated service, has ended.
The elders of Calvary Chapel Auckland have therefore decided to stop support for Gospel for Asia.
The Gospel for Asia office upstairs at the church has closed down and existing supporters of GFA will soon receive a letter from them explaining the position and your options.
We’ve been told KP Yohannan will write a letter but please understand in advance that it doesn’t alter our position here at Calvary Chapel Auckland, nor the greater Calvary Chapel family of churches.
You are of course free to decide whether you want to continue supporting Gospel for Asia.
Calvary Chapel Auckland is establishing our own missions budget (which almost every church has) and we are developing a clear and precise focus for outreach in New Zealand, the South Pacific through Calvary Chapel Radio (broadcasting now for over 10 years to Samoa, and more recently Rarotonga), and in other ways to spread the Gospel and help those in need in other countries.
May the Lord bless you all,
Calvary Chapel Auckland
Phone: 09 918 8000
Calvary Chapel Auckland
Calvary Chapel Bookstore NZ
Calvary Chapel Radio NZ

The letter told members that GFA has amassed as much as $250 million in India. Recently, former board member Gayle Erwin confirmed that figure to me as coming from the investigation conducted by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. This means that GFA has added nearly $100 million since early 2013.
The photos included in the letter from Calvary Chapel Auckland are below:

Ever Carry Cash to India for Gospel for Asia? Calling All Pastors, Staff and Students

Gospel for Asia’s Chief Operating Officer David Carroll told Dallas CBS 11 News that GFA stopped sending cash in envelopes to India after they learned it was illegal. Mr. Carroll told staff another version of that story back in May of this year. In that May 14 staff meeting, Carroll said pastors and staff had carried money to India:

A couple things you should know. We would never endanger students or anyone else, we’ve had pastors carry money, we’ve had staff carry money, we’re always looking for ways to get money into India because the reality is that it’s getting more difficult to do that, and we are looking for other ways that we’re able to do that. But we checked with our auditors before we ever would allow such a practice. We actually called Bland Garvey, they’re our audit firm and said this is what we’re planning to do, this is what we are intending to do, and they told us how we get it receipted they said it’s completely legal, you’re under all limits, you need to get receipts, there need to be receipts here, there need to be receipts there which Lori has receipts from here.

I have spoken to several former GFA School of Discipleship students who carried cash to India. I have spoken to former GFA staff who carried cash and who knew others who carried cash.
Now, I am calling on pastors and current staff to contact me privately to relate experiences of carrying cash to India. Click the link to email me with your story. Nothing will be published without your permission.
I first wrote about this story on May 14, the same day GFA leaders were discussing the subject with staff. Many questions remain about why GFA did it and why they told staff that their auditor, Bland Garvey, told them it was legal. Bland Garvey has since resigned as GFA’s auditor. Pastors and others who carried cash could perhaps help provide some of the story that GFA has declined to share.