Herbert W Armstrong

   At 11:30 a.m. the same day of the special Church service, Messrs. LaRavia, Rader and Helge updated all employees on current events during a previously scheduled employee meeting in the Auditorium, which was also piped into the Hall of Administration for the members already assembled there.

   Immediately after Mr. Rader spoke to the employees, he held a news conference in the Auditorium lobby where he told nearly two dozen members of the News Media, plus dozens more employees gathered around them, that the Worldwide Church of God had released documentation showing the state Attorney General's Office had falsely accused the Church of making no accountings or financial disclosures. Mr. Rader read the following press release:

   "One of the more absurd, false allegations made by the Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Tapper and Special Deputy Attorney General Hillel Chodos in the instant action has been the alleged failure of each of the three defendants' corporations to render an adequate accounting.

   "This accusation is particularly surprising, and gives further evidence of the bad faith of the Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Tapper and Special Deputy Attorney General Hillel Chodos' harassment in that each corporation has filed with the State of California an annual accounting on forms prescribed by the State and in the detail required by those forms.

   "Specifically, Ambassador International Cultural Foundation files with the Attorney General's office an annual, detailed report (Form CT-2) listing, among other things: the total compensation of each officer, director, and key employees: every transaction with each officer or director including any extensions of credit or sales of properties: each transaction involving the purchase or sale of a security or investment including the cost, fair market value, and any gain or loss on the transaction; all distributions to other charities or other recipients; and a balance sheet, income statement, as well as other financial disclosures. This report, although not required to be audited, is audited by independent certified public accountants and their report, together with the Foundation's report, are public documents available for public inspection.

   Moreover, the Foundation also files an annual statement with the State of California Department of Justice showing each California financial institution (and account number) with which it does business and authorizes disclosure to the Attorney General of any and all financial records pertaining to the Foundation held by such financial institution.

   "Ambassador College files a similarly detailed accounting each year with the State of California Franchise Tax Board. Their latest audited report was a 52-page document that required over 250 hours to prepare and which listed each transaction with each officer and director, as well as other pertinent information such as descriptions of each piece of real or personal property sold during the year along with the buyer's name and relationship, the historical cost, fair market value, expenses of sale, and gross sales price.

   "Both the Foundation and the College file identical disclosures with the federal government and all of these documents are available for public inspection.

   "Worldwide Church of God also files an annual information return with the Franchise Tax Board, although the State has chosen to require fewer disclosures of religious institutions.

   "In each case, the level of detail required to be presented in these accountings is dictated by the State and in every instance each of the defendant corporations has fully complied with such requests for accountings. These accountings are available to all contributors and potential contributors. They are available to the news media. They are most certainly available to the Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Tapper and Special Deputy Attorney General Hillel Chodos.

   "Therefore, it is clearly a malicious abuse of the legal process for a Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Tapper and Special Deputy Attorney General Hillel Chodos to falsely state that no accounting has ever been made and that financial disclosures have been sporadic or incomplete. Because the Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Tapper and Special Deputy Attorney General Hillel Chodos knew these allegations were false, both before a complaint was filed as well as throughout the court proceedings, we can only conclude that such false charges are further evidence of the criminal conspiracy to deprive us of our rights."

   More about the meetings and press conference on Monday will be reported in the next issue of The Worldwide News.