PTL Accountants Say $92 Million Is Missing

PTL accountants say that $92 million in church funds is missing, along with a 1939 Rolls-Royce, and the ministry on Friday announced that it is seeking emergency donations to help pay off debts.

Jerry Nims, PTL chief executive officer, also took reporters on a tour of the opulent presidential suite at Heritage Grand Hotel in PTL’s Heritage USA theme park. The suite, which was used at times by PTL’s former chairman, Jim Bakker, and his wife, Tammy Faye, includes a 50-foot closet lighted by cut-glass chandeliers.

The suite includes three bedrooms, two offices, a kitchen, a dining room and two sitting rooms. Its seven bathrooms feature 14-karat gold-plated fixtures.

“It is reasonable to say it (the Bakkers’ housing) was extravagant for a ministry, but not necessarily if you were president of a Fortune 500 company,” Nims said.

Nims said the missing millions had disappeared into a “black hole,” and there is less than $200,000 in the ministry’s bank account.

The missing Rolls-Royce, which was to have been used at the hotel as an ornament, was valued at $62,000 to $69,000, Nims said.

Bakker turned the 518,000-member PTL ministry over to the Rev. Jerry Falwell on March 19 after admitting having had a tryst with a former church secretary in 1980 and making payments to keep her quiet about the encounter.

Falwell told viewers of the “PTL Club” television program this week that the ministry must raise $1 million by Monday, $7 million by the end of the month and about $25 million within 90 days if it is to survive.

“I know Satan’s against us,” Falwell said. “But heart-to-heart and eyeball-to-eyeball, I think you’re for us.”

Falwell also promised “PTL Club” viewers that he will make available a full audit of the ministry’s accounts.

The ministry plans a May 23 auction to raise money.

PTL managers also confirmed Friday that they had been contacted by federal investigators, but declined to specify the agencies involved.

The purpose of the contact, Nims said, was “to meet and discuss the issues involved. And I can’t have any comment beyond that.”

Nims had told the Charlotte Observer on Thursday, “The questions raised were wire fraud, tax fraud, possible extortion, fraud and non-compliance with various state and federal statutes.”

The U.S. attorney, FBI officials and an IRS spokesman declined to discuss any inquiries. The investigation of possible extortion may relate to Bakker’s claim that he had been blackmailed when PTL paid $265,000 on behalf of Jessica Hahn in 1985, the newspaper said.

Nims released an unaudited statement dated March 31 that showed PTL assets of $178.4 million and debts of $66.7 million. Debts include $8 million to television stations and $14 million to contractors.

Harry Hargrave, chief operations officer, said that since July, the ministry has had an average negative cash flow of $2 million a month, except for December, when it broke even.

He said much of the cash early this year went to bonuses for the Bakkers and for the Rev. Richard Dortch, formerly one of PTL’s top ministers.

PTL