RESPONSE TO FRED DATTOLO'S REPORT ON "GLOBAL'S DISTORTIONS REGARDING
LOAN
PAYMENTS":
Many of you have undoubtedly seen Fred Dattolo's above-mentioned
"report," which
he placed on Bob Thiel's private Web-Site, and which was incorporated in
Roderick C.
Meredith's Membership Letter, dated December 21, 1998.
Since Mr. Dattolo's report includes many misleading statements and
inaccuracies, it is
necessary to reply to said report as follows:
Mr. Dattolo commenced his report by stating that certain disclosure statements
as of
December 31, setting forth the amounts and maturity dates of loans received,
are not
binding. This is clearly erroneous. The Global Church of God HAD binding
schedule
agreements with the lenders, pertaining to the time of repayments of their
loans. These
were in addition to other relevant documentation, such as promissory notes.
These
agreements, called "disclosures" by Mr. Dattolo, were signed by
Global's CFO, and sent to the lenders by the Church's external Auditors. They
had listed
the loan amount, the interest, and the maturity date. The letters,
specifically confirming
the particular obligation from the Church, were signed by each lender and
returned to the
Church's Auditor.
This means that none of the loans, for which checks were issued by Dr.
Meredith and Don
Davis (who, at that time, had been removed as a signatory), were due and
payable.
In any event, the goal was not to pay back loans, whether due and payable or
not. Mr.
Dattolo's explanation for the issuance of the checks in his report is in
conflict with
prior statements, confirmed by others, that the checks were issued to get the
control of
the cash in order to force the Board into resignation. Following that, the
"loans" would have been given right back to Dr. Meredith by the
lenders to the
Church.(It should be pointed out that by that time, Dr. Meredith had already
written AND
SENT his letter to GCG members, asking them to send God's money to him
personally. The
conclusion should be clear, WHERE that money would have gone).
In addition, Dr. Meredith had his agents call other lenders, suggesting, or
even
demanding, that they call in their loans, too, and it is noteworthy that the
unauthorized
issuance of the three checks occurred the same day when additional demands for
other
loans, all from Dr. Meredith's supporters, were received by Global's CFO. None
of those
loans were due and payable, either.
Finally, the issuance of those unauthorized checks went hand in hand with Dr.
Meredith's
above-mentioned membership letter, dated November 12, 1998, in which Dr.
Meredith asked
the members of the Church to send God's tithes and offerings to Dr. Meredith
personally,
rather than to the Church. All of this shows, of course, a pattern to
"get control of
the cash" and/or to bankrupt the Church, in order to force the Board into
resigning,
so that Dr. Meredith could assume the role of an autocratic, "sole"
and
"unquestioned" leader.
Mr. Dattolo, in his attempt to justify the unauthorized issuance of those
checks under the
disguise of a legitimate repayment of loans, stated that the schedule for
repayments was
repeatedly changed in the past, so that Dr. Meredith conduct was not
inconsistent with the
"established practice and procedure" in Global. This explanation is
false (even
apart from the fact that the issuance of the checks was clearly NOT for the
purpose of
repaying lenders their money).
Only on a very few occasions, the payment schedule was changed, with the
lender's prior
approval, but generally only to POSTPONE repayment of portions of the loans.
There were
two exceptions, however:
One loan was paid to a person who is now a supporter of the LCG, as the lender
had
requested repayment because of "personal problems." This was,
however, done
without prior approval of the Executive Committee, and when I found out about
it
subsequently, I advised of the need of such prior approval (which advice Mr.
Dattolo
conveniently ignored).
In a second case, the repayment did not really involve a loan from a member,
but rather, a
bank loan, for which a member had given a collateral in form of a piece of
real property.
This was the highest priced of all outstanding liabilities, so that early
repayment seemed
to be a prudent business decision.
The situation involving the issuance of the unauthorized checks to
"repay" loans
in late November (even if that HAD been the real purpose behind that
transaction) was
totally different. It was done in contradiction with established internal
procedure. Also,
the CFO was purposely circumvented. Further, Dr. Meredith signed the Wells
Fargo Bank
checks for the repayment of the loans, which he had never done before (In
fact, Dr.
Meredith had rarely signed ANY checks for this particular Wells Fargo Bank
account. He
would only do so when nobody else was available). In addition, it was
represented later to
the CFO
and to me that the manner in which the checks were issued was done on purpose
so that
"they" (the Board Members) could not stop Dr. Meredith. It was
therefore known
that the Board HAD the power to stop Dr. Meredith. And lastly, Don Davis did
not sign
checks in the past which had been made out to him. In fact, he would return
those checks
so that they could be signed by another signatory.
It is also worthy to note that Mr. Dattolo's assistant later apologized to the
Board for
his involvement in the matter, "for not questioning the
transactions," and that
he was "relying on the judgment of " his "supervisor and
President of the
company."
If the Board had not found out about the checks and stopped payment, the
Church would not
have been able to handle such a sudden outgo of money (in spite of Fred
Dattolo's
allegations, which are contradicted by previous memos which he wrote to the
Board,
cautioning everybody not to spend money which was not absolutely necessary).
Mr. Dattolo made reference to another account, for which Dr. Meredith and
others had sole
signatory powers. He suggested that if Dr. Meredith wanted to embezzle money,
he could
have issued checks from that account. It must be pointed out, however, that
Dr. Meredith
NEVER signed ANY checks for THAT account, but those checks were all signed by
the CFO.
The money on that account was only used to transfer funds to our Wells Fargo
Bank account,
to have enough funds on Wells Fargo for payroll and for other bills which
needed to be
paid.
Mr. Dattolo also alleged that Dr. Meredith thought that Don Davis' removal as
a signatory
would only take effect after the checks had been issued on Monday. This
statement must be
rejected as self-serving, as Dr. Meredith himself signed NEW signatory cards,
REMOVING Don
Davis from that account, on the previous Friday, in the presence of the Board
members,
while stating repeatedly, "I can't believe, you are removing Don as a
signatory."
Finally, Mr. Dattolo accused me of serious professional misconduct, when he
stated, that
I, "in open office space, in front of many witnesses and in a most
unprofessional
manner jumped to conclusions and cried 'felony,' 'embezzlement.'"
This statement is false and defamatory, and I have asked Mr. Dattolo to
specify for me
whether he claims that he was present when I allegedly made these statements,
who else was
present, when exactly did I make those alleged statements, where did I make
them, and what
exactly did I allegedly say. I have, so far, not received a response to my
letter from Mr.
Dattolo.
Norbert Link
Attorney at Law
Legal Counsel to the Global Church of God