The BKWSU is a well organised, well run fiefdom. The acceptance of
what is effectively a monarchy by the general membership and the closed
door policy of the ruling inner circle has resulted in a complete lack
of transparency. This in turn has given sufficient opportunity for BKWSU
management to employ whatever means it deems necessary to advance it’s
financial agenda.
Given the propensity for deception as discussed in
previous pages, deception in financial dealings would not then come as a
surprise. The principle consideration here is the deception for
financial gain of the British Charities Commission by the BKWSU.
Included on this page are the Financial Reports submitted to the British
Charities Commission as required by law.
They reveal both the
significant amount of money the Brahma Kumaris are dealing with in the
UK and the highly questionable nature of their claim to be a charity.
The deception begins with the withholding of financial information from
the general membership. No member will have any information about what
happens to donations they give, or any idea of the financial status of
their BK centre. Once the funds have been transferred to higher levels
there is no idea what goes on – there is no transparency at all. As the
BKWSU deal mostly in cash there is no way of saying how much of their
true income is actually declared. Whilst the bulk of donations to the
organisation is cash, donations come in a variety of forms. Members are
indoctrinated into giving everything they possibly can in any way they
can. This may include gold and jewellery (the BKWSU has a high number of
Indian members who will give in this way), property, cars and
inheritances. The BKWSU hold funds in networks of private bank accounts
and trusts. it has been reported that they have also moved undeclared
cash and jewellery internationally, and hold property in individual
names. In the United Kingdom alone The Brahma Kumaris have successfully
avoided paying tax on over £18,000,000 (including £3,000,000 cash in the
bank).
Evidence provided below demonstrates that they have mislead the
Charities Commission in order to claim charitable status. As a
registered charity they are not required to pay tax and also gain an
entitlement to tax refunds. In order to get charitable status in the UK
an organisation has to comply with the requirements of the Statute of
Elizabeth. This statute requires that a charity fulfils certain basic
criteria. The Brahma Kumaris fulfil none of these however they have
falsely stated that they do.
Firstly they claim that they “PROMOTE THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE HINDU
RELIGION AND OTHER RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.” An examination of BK beliefs
reveals that their teachings state that they are not Hindus, that they
teach a conflicting philosophy to Hinduism (notably in their
interpretation of God, soul and reincarnation) and that they preach that
all religions are impure and theirs is the only true religion.
The Brahma Kumaris often exploit the title “Raja Yoga” or “the
Ancient Raja Yoga” appearing to make reference to Hinduism. But they
preach that God Shiva teaches them directly and exclusively a form of
meditation that is unique to them and which they have chosen to call
Raja Yoga because it is the Supreme Yoga, or Highest Yoga.
Their participation in Hindu festivals etc is only as a front in
order to fish for new members. They have no involvement with traditional
religion. In reality the only religion they promote is their own.
Senior BKWSU management know that this claim is false.
Secondly they claim “TO PROMOTE STUDIES OF AND RESEARCH IN THE FIELD
OF HINDU RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY, YOGA (VARIOUS TECHNIQUES OF CONCENTRATION
AS DEFINED AND DISCUSSED IN HINDU SCRIPTURES) AND TO MAKE KNOWN THE
RESULTS OF SUCH STUDIES AND RESEARCH. This claim is very far from any
activity of the BKWSU past or present. No general member of the Brahma
Kumaris will be aware that this is a declared intention of the
organisation or will have participated in such an activity. No research
or study has ever been done and so naturally no results have been made
known. They do not have the personnel or infrastructure to do so. A
review of their balance sheets will confirm this.
This claim is also false.
Thirdly they claim “TO RELIEVE POVERTY, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL SICKNESS
AND DISTRESS.” For the BKWSU to make this claim is cynical and
deplorable. They have no agenda for this at all.
Members are strongly discouraged from helping others in any material
way at all, and it is strictly against the organizations policy to
utilise resources in that way. The Brahma Kumaris preach that material
poverty and suffering is the result of bad karma and to help such a
person materially is only to support that bad karma or weaknesses. They
believe that the only way you can help them, ultimately, is by making
them a member.
Importantly the Brahma Kumaris do not consult, employ or engage
mental health practitioners or health professionals. How is it they
intend to relieve mental or physical sickness when they have zero
capacity to do so? It is also clear from the following financial reports
that there is zero expenditure in this regard. There is simply no
intention to fulfill this stated aim.
Given that this site is dedicated to the trauma and suffering of
BKWSU membership past and present and to those who have committed
suicide as a result, the only valid claim is that they cause mental
illness and distress. Their claim to relieve mental and physical
sickness and distress is an appalling abuse of the right to claim
charitable status.
The Financial Reports:
Public disclosure of the Financial Reports of charities has enabled
us to draw to public attention the contradictions revealed by those
reports against claims made by the BKWSU management. We have the reports
for 2005 and 2006, which are the latest submitted.
Below is page one of a legally required report submitted by the BKWSU Trustees to the Charities Commission:
As
we have already highlighted, none of what they claim above is true. A
survey of the general membership would establish this beyond doubt.
Below is page two of the report:
There
are two parts to this statement – to identify suitable properties and
to further ‘primary objectives’. As previously discussed, the primary
objectives are false claims to promote religion and relieve poverty etc.
To ‘identify suitable properties’ is BK talk for accumulating
properties. This they have been very good at. In later reports you will
see that they have accumulated well over £10 million pounds in free hold
property – all with untaxed money.
And page three reveals how relaxed the Charities Commission is:
The answer the Brahma Kumaris give to the question of success is
vague and unsupported by any data – it is the response of amateurs not
of an organisation that is responsible for millions of pounds of
“charitable” funds and assets. This is just form filling with no
intention for the answer to be taken seriously by anyone.
The fact is the BKWSU management have no mechanism to determine the
success of its’ strategy beyond the value of properties accumulated, the
number of people who attended their courses, or the number of
‘recruitment’ programs they instigated and the number of attendees. In
reality the success of any zone is determined by the number of problems
they are, or are not, dealing with. Senior management have no idea about
the “general happiness, lack of stress, esteem or positive outlook” of
its students/members because no study or research is done, nor is there
anyone professionally qualified to have an opinion on these matters.
And lastly, perhaps to highlight the obvious, how does “general
happiness, lack of stress, high esteem and general positive outlook of
the Brahma Kumaris own students”, as their own measure of success,
relate to their stated aim of “promoting of religion, religious
education and relief of poverty”? It just doesn’t. They also certainly
demonstrate zero consideration for anyone outside their own fold, which
is also contrary to their stated aim.
The next page of the report they state that “the charity played a
great role not only in financial assistance to the Tsunami victims but
also that of spiritual help which involves meditation and positive
thinking”. However, looking closer one can see an income of £1,586,000
and an expenditure of £1,041,000 leaving a profit of £545,000. Most of
this profit they later state that they used to buy a new retreat centre.
It makes a mockery of the £69,000 in financial assistance they gave and
then claim as a “great role”. Even more questionable is the claim that
they (in the U.K.), also claiming to be a Hindu organisation, taught the
traumatised survivors of the Tsunami – who were mostly Indonesian
Muslims – meditation and positive thinking! This may be considered
cynical or dishonourable.
In question 5b the BKWSU states that its’ most charitable act of the
year was in giving £69,000 in Tsunami relief. This was out of the
£1,586,000 available to them and with a £545,000 cash surplus for the
year. You can also see in 5c that this £69,000 was actually raised from
their membership as an extra and was in fact not part of their regular
“charitable” activities. In reality, the most significant charitable act
of the year was an anomaly. It would also be the only actual charitable
financial donation the BKWSU has ever given.
The next page of the report reveals further how confused Brahma
Kumaris management is about their purpose. On one hand they believe that
God is teaching them directly and exclusively, that they are the only
true children of God and that salvation for any person lies only in
becoming a student / member of the BKWSU. On the other hand they teach
self management and self leadership courses that are designed and
licensed to them by a corporate consultant – Brian Bacon. How do these
“enable a greater understanding of the self and supreme soul”? Again,
The Brahma Kumaris have created a façade to hide who they really are,
what they really believe, and what their true intentions and purpose
are.
And they finish with a Freudian slip – “the charity’s trustees ensure that it co-opts proffessional individuals and sets up management committees to run every department of its charity to ensure aa proffessional
and accurate running of the charity.” (The italics are ours). They can
neither spell nor write a grammatically correct sentence. We are
reassured to see that they are employing professionals!
The 2006 report is also quite revealing of false claims and dodgy
dealings, notably including BKIS – a publishing company owned by the
BKWSU but which conflicts with charity tax laws. According to BK
preachings the organisations entire income must be derived from within
the “Divine Family” i.e.: those who have recognised that Shiva is God
and that He is teaching through Brahma. However, in order to propagate
their teachings, and turn a profit (also against their preachings), they
have established a publishing capacity. However, due to governing
charity laws, they cannot engage in business. So they sell books and
DVDs which make a profit, but how to get the profit out and back into
their own coffers? Simple, charge a “management fee”. This is walking a
fine line, but as we have seen the BKWSU management are very good at
this. This is evidenced in the following graphics:
And they finish with a Freudian slip – “the charity’s trustees ensure that it co-opts proffessional individuals and sets up management committees to run every department of its charity to ensure aa proffessional
and accurate running of the charity.” (The italics are ours). They can
neither spell nor write a grammatically correct sentence. We are
reassured to see that they are employing professionals!
The 2006 report is also quite revealing of false claims and dodgy
dealings, notably including BKIS – a publishing company owned by the
BKWSU but which conflicts with charity tax laws. According to BK
preachings the organisations entire income must be derived from within
the “Divine Family” i.e.: those who have recognised that Shiva is God
and that He is teaching through Brahma. However, in order to propagate
their teachings, and turn a profit (also against their preachings), they
have established a publishing capacity. However, due to governing
charity laws, they cannot engage in business. So they sell books and
DVDs which make a profit, but how to get the profit out and back into
their own coffers? Simple, charge a “management fee”. This is walking a
fine line, but as we have seen the BKWSU management are very good at
this. This is evidenced in the following graphics:
In (1) you can see the list of products for sale. In (2) is
demonstrated the clear link between the BKWSU and BKIS. And in (3) it
becomes clear that the beloved leader, Dadi Janki, is both a common
denominator and willing participant in this deception. The “management
fee” is highlighted here:
The BKWSU management is deceiving its’ own members by practising
hypocrisy. They are also lying to both the Charities Commission and the
Tax Commissioner – there is absolutely nothing independent or
professional about this. They are extracting the profits from BKIS
before the Tax Commissioner gets his bit with a phoney management fee.
And the BKWSU gets its’ profit without declaring it as such to the
Charity Commission.
How do the BKWSU get away with all this? It is a case of chronic
nepotism and manipulating contacts – notably the use of its’ own
membership as Financial Auditor – a significant conflict of interest.
Firstly we see that trustees serve until they resign and that new
members are appointed by the existing board – guaranteed to keep things
in house and away from prying, untrustworthy eyes.
As for the “chief executive” – in reality there is no such thing. The
Brahma Kumaris are effectively ruled by a monarch, that being Dadi
Janki. She holds absolute control and has, in reality, the power to
appoint or terminate trustees. The assistance given by trustees is
really the help provided by sicophants at her grace. As she has total
control over the organisation the available cash becomes, in effect, her
discretionary income. According to the 2006 Financial Statement this
sits at over £3,000,000.
An email was sent to the auditor of the BKWSU financial reports Jay
and Co requesting information about the relationship between the auditor
and the Brahma Kumaris. The following reply was received:
“I have been a BK was some 15 yeas and folow maryadas as
much as possible as being in the family who cooperate but are not BKs
one has to balance and cannot be complete”.
The author is Jayanti (not Jayanti the senior BK manager) who, in his
grammatically challenged statement, has stated that he has been closely
associated with the BKWSU for 15 years. His reference to “being
complete” reflects his guilt in not following all the mariadas. It is
also a reflection of his indoctrination into the BK teachings. This
makes him available to manipulation by BKWSU management. This type of
manipulation and use and abuse of “cooperative souls” is typical of the
Brahma Kumaris throughout the world.
The Charity Commissions report can be viewed at:
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University
Also Known As : World Renewal Spiritual Trust (UK)
Address : Global Co-operation House
65 Pound LaneLondonNW10 2HH
Tel : 020 8727 3350
Charity Registration Number : 269971
Founded : 1975
Constitution : Trust.
Also Known As : World Renewal Spiritual Trust (UK)
Address : Global Co-operation House
65 Pound LaneLondonNW10 2HH
Tel : 020 8727 3350
Charity Registration Number : 269971
Founded : 1975
Constitution : Trust.
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