After a recent podcast with me and Susan Puzio, this comment was publicly posted in the comments. But it underscores the shadiness of the popular televangelists and their unquenchable greed for money and fame. I’ve been monitoring Hinn’s shenanigans since last century.
For the record:
— Chrissy Quick
Great video Susan and Jackie! I appreciate videos like this because, unfortunately, I know firsthand that what you’re exposing about Benny Hinn is not just something people have speculated about from the outside.
I worked inside Benny Hinn Ministries for four years, from 2009 until 2013, in the finance department. I handled accounts payable for the executive office as well as international payments. I went into that ministry not really knowing who Benny Hinn was. It did not take long for me to find out.
When people talk about Benny’s extravagant lifestyle, I didn’t hear about it secondhand. I saw the receipts. I saw the credit card statements. I processed the invoices and payments. I saw the expenses for lavish hotels, a private jet, the personal chef, flight attendants, full flight crews and the enormous amount of money being spent to maintain that lifestyle while people were sending donations to what they believed was the work of God.
Costi Hinn, Benny’s nephew, worked there during some of the same years I did. I personally know who Costi is and processed expense checks for him. Costi has spoken and written extensively about what he witnessed inside the Hinn organization. I can tell you that I saw the financial records behind the kind of lifestyle he has described. He witnessed it as a family member traveling in that world. I saw it from inside the finance department.
One of the things that raised serious concerns for me was money being paid as consulting fees to companies connected to Benny Hinn and Donald Price. Two of the company names I dealt with were Eministries and Pink Golf Cart. These payments were not limited to the US ministry. Money was also being paid through six international offices. From my position inside finance, the way money was moving through these entities was extremely concerning to me and ultimately became part of what I reported.
During Benny Hinn’s divorce, a $250,000 donation came into the ministry for Benny Hinn’s legal fees. That was then routed to Benny as a “bonus.” I personally saw the financial activity surrounding it. This was during a period when employees were being laid off, people were losing their jobs without severance, and the remaining employees were forced to take a 7% pay cut.
Think about that for a moment. Employees were being told the ministry was struggling financially, yet the extravagant spending continued.
Then there was our retirement money.
Employees were told that Benny Hinn Ministries was matching contributions to our 403(b) retirement accounts. The employer match was reflected on our pay stubs, but the money was not actually being deposited into the retirement accounts as represented. That was not somebody’s opinion about Benny Hinn. That involved employees’ money, including mine.
I left Benny Hinn Ministries in March 2013, but I did not forget what I had witnessed and I kept documentation.
In 2017 I began working with investigators with the Trinity Foundation and provided information concerning what I had witnessed inside the ministry. Reports were made to federal authorities, including the IRS and FBI. During that time another whistleblower came forward in addition to myself. In 2017, federal agents, including IRS investigators and U.S. Postal Inspectors, executed a raid at Benny Hinn Ministries’ Grapevine, TX corporate offices as part of a federal investigation.
After that investigation began, I eventually started receiving money into my 403(b) that should have been there years earlier.
I have been speaking out about what I witnessed for years because I believe Christians have an obligation to expose this kind of behavior, especially when it is being done in the name of Jesus.
I also want people to understand something important. I wasn’t sitting in the crusades trying to figure out where the money went. I WAS IN THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT WITNESSING IT FIRSTHAND.
I saw invoices.
I saw expense reports.
I saw credit card statements.
I saw payments including multiple international country wire transfers.
I saw the lavish spending.
I saw what was happening to employees financially while enormous amounts of money continued to be spent at the top. I also witnessed spiritual abuse of these same employees including myself.
I saw enough that after leaving, I was willing to provide what I knew to investigators and federal authorities.
This is also why Costi Hinn’s testimony matters to me. He has written books and spoken publicly about the world surrounding his uncle. I knew Costi during those years. I processed expenses involving him. When he describes the lavish lifestyle surrounding Benny Hinn, I don’t have to wonder whether that world existed. I saw the receipts for it!
People can argue theology all day long. They can debate healing, anointing, prosperity preaching, falling under the power, or whether Benny Hinn is sincere. I cannot tell another person what is in Benny Hinn’s heart because I do not know. Evidence tells me and I believe it is not of God.
I CAN tell you what crossed my desk. And once you have sat inside the finance department and seen where the money actually goes, you can never look at television ministry the same way ever again.
People sacrificed to send that ministry money. Some of them were elderly. Some were sick. Some were desperate for healing. Some gave money they could not afford to give because they believed they were sowing into God’s work.
That is the part that has never left me.
This isn’t entertainment to me. It isn’t YouTube gossip. It isn’t about attacking someone because I don’t like his preaching.
I worked there and I saw it.
I documented what concerned me and I reported what I knew.
I will continue speaking about it because the people sitting in those crusades, watching those programs, writing those checks and giving sacrificially deserve to know what can happen to their money once the cameras are turned off.
The Church should never be afraid of transparency. If a ministry is truly operating with integrity, transparency should vindicate it, not threaten it.
“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:11
That verse is one of the reasons I refuse to remain silent.
