Quote from a man named Allen.

The area where some improprieties may have happened is in the actual collection and distribution of funds. When the ICC evangelizer preached for donations to the poor … did he mean the benevolence account at the church – or did he mean HOPE? Did he promote projects of HOPE to stimulate donations that he *knew* would be retained by the church? We will not know until the books of the churches are open for more detailed study.

I have found the Shell Game with HOPE. Let me go over it one more time. HOPE Regional entities such as HOPE – Florida, Hope – Arizona – etc. 30 something of them … would collect locally – citing projects in the region plus HOPE ww projects all over the World. They were ‘usually’ very careful to not promote -> to the public < - how much would stay local and how much would go elsewhere. On the other hand - various people at the churches would promote to membership that high percentages of the donations would stay local. Members often quoted figures such as 87% of HOPE is for local projects -- or only 12% is administrative costs ... I have no choice but to recognize this as equal to the preachin' in the churches - ie., - what members were being *told*. Very infrequently were such figures 'written down'. What the HOPE Regionals had done was to establish local projects and give them a name - like HOPE for Kids After School Mentoring Program. Many of these projects were staffed with volunteers from the church. People would donate - thinking that their money would go to such and similar real programs - and that their donations were needed to cover expenses of the program. The 'accounting' on the local level would support such programs by name and the expenses would be listed. There would be a column for telephone, printing, rental, etc. -- there would be NO Salary Column ... but there was also a column named = Management Fee Paid to HWW Corp. THIS column most often overshadowed all others in total amount. The Management Fee Paid to HWW Corp. was as much as 90+% of the 'program fee' in some areas ... see http://TOLC.org/finances.htm [1999 Audit section 3] for actual audits showing YOUR Region and the Management Fees. Now -- what was this Management Fee used for? It was used to pay the Local HOPE Administrators, Executives and Paid Staff at the HOPE Regionals - and in support of the HOPE Corporate Executives and their Paid Staff. The HOPE New England 990 confirms this to be a fact. In closing -- most of the HOPE expenses -- whether on a Regional or Corporate level -- were consumed as Salary and Benefits. Very little went to other costs associated with the Programs. This is evident when doing a careful study of available IRS 990s. However ... and this is troubling ... HOPE sends about 60% of the money off-shore to projects in foreign lands ... and the US IRS *DOES NOT* track how this money is actually spent. The amounts sent off-shore are merely an Expense Item on the US forms. HOPE has NEVER provided a detailed Audit of ANY FOREIGN PROGRAM to the contributors in the US. An increasing number of people are beginning to see that HOPE may be the vehicle to move money out of the US ... for who knows what ... only a detailed Audit would show. Remember -- 60% of HOPE Money goes to off-shore projects ...