US securities authorities are investigating efforts by the Mormon Church to keep its massive investment arm secret for years, a practice it abandoned after a former employee revealed in 2019 that the fund had amassed $100 billion in assets, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
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The investigation, which has not been publicly confirmed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)is in an advanced phase and will probably be resolved with an agreement in the coming months, according to anonymous sources in the economic daily.
The case, points out the WSJ, focuses on the possible violation of regulations that oblige the managers of this type of funds to regularly report the assets in their possession, and non-compliance is usually punished with fines.
The entity at the center of this investigation is Ensign Peak Advisorsan investment firm owned by the Mormon Church and which has always been shrouded in secrecy.
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According to the WSJ, Ensign Peak has been offering that information required by the stock market authorities since February 2020, after in 2019 a former employee filed a complaint with the US tax agency assuring that this fund should not be treated as a non-profit entity and, therefore, be exempt from federal taxes.
It was during this process that it came to light that, at that time, the fund controlled about $100 billion in assets, a size equivalent to some large sovereign wealth funds.
In an interview published at the time, the head of Ensign Peak admitted at the time that some anonymity had been sought as Church leaders feared that the faithful would stop donating if the amount of money that had accumulated was known.
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Under US standards, Ensign Peak It is obliged to publicly account for certain investments -which on September 30 reached some 40,000 million dollars-, but it does not have to report the rest of its portfolio, so its total size is currently unknown.
EFE