Update: on Nov 10, 2011 Ronald Weinland was indicted for tax fraud and was arraigned on Nov 23.
In a recent sermon, Ron-who-speaks-for-God mentioned that there are spiritual battles of which the members are not aware. Perhaps he was referring to the battle in which he is engaged.
Ronald Weinland is being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Internal Revenue Service. They are looking into his taxes beginning with tax year 2004 and including all of the years since. An investigation by the IRS CID should not be confused with a more common taxpayer audit. The IRS CID is described:
"The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is the IRS police department. With the help of the court system, CID puts people in jail. They don’t wear uniforms like police, but they carry gold badges and guns like police. If somebody says they are from CID of the IRS, you or somebody you know is under criminal investigation and may go to jail."
In 2007 the IRS Criminal Investigation Division started only 4211 investigations and referred 2837 cases for prosecution. In 2007, 2323 were prosecuted and 2155 convicted. So it should be emphasized that not everyone investigated is actually guilty of a tax code violation. So the IRS CID investigation does not mean that Ronald Weinland is a criminal -- that can only be decided by the courts.
On the COG-PKG FAQ page is stated: "The Church of God – PKG teaches that all who follow the teachings of the Church should be law-abiding citizens and that all are to support and cooperate with law enforcement agencies. " However the Spokesman Witness has engaged legal counsel and is seeking to impede the investigation by legal means.
Ron, since your church teaches that you should be law abiding, then you've done nothing wrong, wouldn't that be correct? Ron, it is certainly your right to avail yourself of legal counsel. But Ron, since you are a man who is true to his word, when you signed your tax returns you were being true to your word and should have nothing to fear by cooperating as your church teaches, right? After all, only about 1/2 of people investigated by the IRS CID are convicted so since you are a man who is true to his word you wouldn't be convicted -- right, Ron? You are a man who is always true to his word -- isn't that right, Ron?
Updates: August 9 sermon, ILFPRW talks about spiritual battles.
WeinlandTranscripted finds court documents supporting this story.
Sept 4, 2008. IRS and Weinland settle the dispute about the summonses.
Sept 14, 2008. Weinland admits "government problems" to his congregation.
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17 comments:
if good'ol RW is in jail, then how is he and his wife going to go to jerusalem to meet their destiny?
my daughter married a guy who belongs to the prophet's group. she is and was raised a christian. her first year of marriage was hell on her because she continued in her baptist faith, going to church with us on Sun, celebrating Christmas without her husband, etc. after a few months of trying to please us and him, she finally was baptised into his faith. i honestly don't care if she's in church Sat or Sun or even if she celebrates Christmas or not, but this "prophet" scares the crap out of me- and all this stock piling of food, gas, etc. she's having hives, rashes, unexplained illnesses, but the dr can't find anything wrong. she insists it has nothing to do with the "church" but she never had any of this junk before she got married. do any of you actually think this man is really dangerous? i know he's fake. i tell her all the time, if he were who he said he was, he would have smote me down long ago--good thing the end-time prophet can't read minds. i just have such and uneasy feeling about this guy.
To Greg: Good point. But I imagine that ILFPRW would find an explanation allowing him to continue as a Witness despite the restrictions on outside prisoner communication. Guess the Silent Witness would have to step up to the plate and open her mouth.
To "anonymous": Having followed him (but not having been a follower of him) and listening to his sermons, I don't get a sense that he'd pull a Jim Jones and organize a mass suicide. His behavior suggests he's not drinking his own Flavor Aid, just handing it out. I think that he is dangerous to the psyches and pocketbooks of his followers. Maybe your daughter's physical reactions are due to the contradictions that Weinland puts out. Hopefully the IRS will be soon successful in incarcerating him.
Have you noticed that Ron Weinland's sermons about love are always preached in a condescending tone and sounds as if he thinks his followers are stupid and dumb?
He might as well end every sentence of his rants with "you IDIOT!, you Stupid, Stupid IDIOT!"
Sounds like ole Ron Weinland may have been misappropriating tithe money and the IRS is catching up to him?
That's going to be a cold dose of reality to his god complex.
Your sins shall find you out, as the scripture says.
"But I imagine that ILFPRW would find an explanation allowing him to continue as a Witness despite the restrictions on outside prisoner communication."
Yeah just like Warren Jeffs is.
Believe me, this will not faze any of his "true believers" one iota. We have the history of HWA, Stan Rader, and receivership to reflect upon. WCG grew by leaps and bounds immediately following the allegations of fiscal malfeasance, and the members-instituted lawsuit which led to court supervision of the Armstrong empire decades ago.
In fact, government action against any or all of the ACOG charlatans, as long as it isn't for murder or rape, can be spun in their own favor, and will be seen as persecution by the members.
It'd be nice if IRS shut Weiner Dude down, but I'm not holding my breath. Now, they could revoke the tax exempt status of his church group. That might be nice.
BB
BB, I think you might be right. Here's a comment left by one of Weinland's true believers on another forum about this post:
I'm expecting a lot worse than that start. When do think the kid fiddling allegations will begin? A month, two months? Possibly after the claim that he hangs out with prostitutes? Check out some of the garbage they have out there about Herbert Armstrong, it will give you some idea of what Ron will have to expect in the future. (I don't know why it is that one of the signs of a true believer seems to be the lack of grammatical skills.)
Never mind that the "garbage" about HWA might actually be true.
As far as any other allegations against Weinland, whether kid fiddling, prostitution, etc. I'm not aware of any and doubt they exist. And if any surfaced they'd have to be pretty well substantiated before I'd report them here. As is the information I've given about the IRS Vs Weinland.
"WCG grew by leaps and bounds immediately following the allegations of fiscal malfeasance,"
This is true, my family is living proof of that. (Joined in '76.)
At least with all the info out on the 'Net about ILFPRW, the chance of new sheeple coming into the fold completely fleeced is a little less than entering Herbie's little cult of horrors was, back in the day.
Actually, the receivership episode was in '79. I recall following the saga in the library of the college I attended which provided copies of the LA Times.
But not as convenient as the Internet. Guess this exposes me as a fossil.
Isn't his daughter his accountant? If things get really sticky, do you think he'll let her take the fall so that he can continue his "job" as the end-time witness?
My understanding is that the False Prophet as a person is the target of the investigation.
But since the COG-PKG is effectively an extension of the ILFPRW, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the investigation extend there as well. And if so, then maybe someone else in Ron's family business would take a fall.
I learned of RW from google ads on my site. I listened to one of his sermons today and perceived anger inside him. When he said he is a prophet I started to worry that his followers were being drawn into a cult.
I googled him and found this page. I am happy others have perceived him for what I believe him to be. Your blog is appropriately named.
When the peace of Jesus rests upon you there is no hint of anger in your voice.
I was thinking of sending an email to the FBI, but I see you have it under control.
Jesus Christ is the only name by which you can be saved.
Aug 15, 2008
cog-pkg.org is offline. After a little researching I discovered his website was being hosted in switzerland .ch
I wonder how big his swiss bank account is?
ronweinland.com is still online and it also is hosted in the land of bank accounts.
I really did want to listen to his "sermon" tomorrow.
Now the-end.com is gone.
So I guess it's bye bye Ron.
My apology to all. cog-pkg.org is on the internet again. Was I being presumptuous in thinking Ronald had fled to switzerland? I am sorry. I am also going to listen to his latest when he posts it today.
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