Brazilian church sues Lynn broadcaster for libel
Maranatha Christian Church, a Pentecostal organization serving Brazilians in the United States, says it's just not true it's shipping money to its parent organization in Brazil to buy convertible Lamborghinis for church leaders.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, the New Jersey-based organization - which has local churches in Everett, Framingham and Marlboro, accused broadcaster Beto Moraes of libel for making a series of such allegations about the use of donations by church members. The suit also names the owners of WLYN, who sell air time to Moraes.
The suit charges Moraes is making up his accusations of fraud against the church. In November, leaders of the church in Brazil were barred from their own offices as part of a government investigation into possible fraud related to church donations (article is in Portuguese).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Maranatha complaint | 52.84 KB |
Comments
Lamborghinis?
There are no specific allegations about lambos in the article. It says that church functionaries were making false invoices to skim dollars which they used to buy personal property or smuggled out of Brazil in the suitcases of congregants. They also used congregants to smuggle AV equipment into Brazil. Or as they call it in Brazil, business as usual. Allegedly.
As Beto is repeating mostly things that have appeared in the press already, I don't think he's got much to worry about. He should ramp up and let the church members know that now their donations are not only going to money-laundering and fraud in Brazil but frivolous lawsuits in the US.
Look on page 7 of the complaint
One of the things it says the guy allegedly said was:
That's in the complaint
It's not in the article.
True
My post is really about the complaint, though, which is why I mentioned the Lamborghinis.
However This Turns Out...
However this turns out, it may shed light on the responsibility of radio-station owners who lease time to other individuals or groups for what they say. It's a regular occurrence lately for people who host "financial advice" broadcasts to be indicted for fraud. I haven't heard that the station owners were accused of wrongdoing however. This pattern of licensees turning over part or all of their broadcasting day to outside parties has become a standard-operating-procedure for low-rated (or UNrated stations, almost all AM outlets) to pay the bills. I was one of the first callers to MICHAEL G-R-A-A-H-A-M-M's show on WCRN-AM 830 in Worcester last Monday, and asked him if he and/or his associates were buying time on the station or if he was an employee of some entity getting a regular paycheck like when he was on WTKK-FM. They cut me off immediately after I sked the question and Graham went on a rant about capitalism vs "government Radio", his phrase for WGBH-FM. (It isn't).