Post by jadamGary L. Steward and Christian Bernard will never be reconciled,nor
should they be. GLS is the wronged party. The present AMORC bears no
resembelance to the AMORC of the Lewis's,or even to that of GLS. C.B.
has seen to that.
Rosicrucianism lives on regardless of the coming and going of outward
fraternities that carry the Rosicrucian name. That is the important
thing to remember. The original AMORC had a birth and it had a death.
What is left is a quivering corpse.
Jadam
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Gary Stewart's ouster was poorly handled; the membership was poorly informed
about what happened and why he was removed.
However Stewart had to be removed or AMORC would have gone belly up. IRS can
revoke the nonprofit status of a corporation if they engage in business
transactions which are not allowed for a non profit corporation. Then the
corporation becomes responsible for corporate taxes on earnings as if they
were a regular corporation. This would have bankrupt AMORC. Beyond this, the
officers of the Supreme Grand Lodge were at risk of losing all of their
personal assets to the Internal Revenue Service. IRS can "pierce the
corporate veil" in the event of gross negligence, and seize personal assets
of the corporate officers.
The following is a reconstruction of the events which lead to Stewart's
ouster, as told by Gary Stewart answering questions on this newsgroup. For
those interested in doing the research, the answers cover a span of several
years of Gary Stewart's posts to this newsgroup. There is more information
about the IRS audit of AMORC on another newsgroup. Stewart avoided answering
some questions about the events so you must fill in the blanks on your own.
These are the events that lead to his ouster.
Gary Stewart hired and signed a contract with unlicensed financial advisors
who were not accountable to any professional governing body. They had none
of the usual degrees or professional designations or certifications expected
of a financial advisor. Stewart will not be specific about the
qualifications of the advisors.
The financial advisors set up a line of credit for AMORC backed by
"investments". These investments were probably an employee pension fund,
since non profit corporations are limited in the amount of money they are
allowed to accumulate, unlike businesses run for profit. Stewart will not be
specific about the source of the money.
The financial advisors held several meetings with AMORC board members
discussing what they planned on doing for AMORC .
The financial advisors talked about offering a fraternal insurance plan to
the membership. Plans like this can be set up for FREE without the use of
financial advisors. Any licensed insurance broker would have willingly done
it.
The financial advisors talked about setting up an AMORC credit card
offering. This can be done for FREE by any credit card issuing bank. Plans
like this can be set up for FREE without the use of financial advisors.
The financial advisors advised AMORC to put their money in interest bearing
accounts. This may be the only practical advice they gave.
The financial advisors recommended setting up two trust funds, one in
Pittsburgh, another in Andorra.
They talked about moving AMORC's Spanish Grand Lodge headquarters to
Andorra. The reason Stewart gave for this was to save on taxes. When I
pointed out that it was impossible to save enough on taxes to pay back the
loan of several million dollars, his response was the money would be paid
back out of earnings as usual. When I asked Stewart why borrow several
million dollars to set up an office in Andorra when an office can be set up
for a few thousand dollars, he responded there were many advantages to
banking in Andorra. When asked what the advantages were his response was the
Google search engine knows what advantages there were to banking in Andorra.
This is an evasion. The reason people set up accounts there is SECRECY. The
banks would not cooperate with other governments by divulging information
about the accounts or business transactions they are involved in. This is
why smugglers like Andorra. Stewart acknowledges the financial advisors were
working on other "projects" but will not be specific about what they were.
If they were money making enterprises, AMORC would lose its non profit
status, even if the projects were carried out from a foreign country like
Andorra. It is also illegal to conspire to break the law.
After several meetings with AMORC's board of directors, the board agreed to
borrow money if and when there were suitable plans to use the money. But
there were no solid plans approved, only vague ideas about saving on taxes
and moving headquarters to Andorra. No office space was rented, no employees
hired.
AMORC's board approved setting up two trust funds; one in Pittsburgh; one in
Andorra; the board approved putting $750,000 in the Pittsburgh trust fund
but did not authorize spending the money.
AMORC's board transferred $500,000 into the Pittsburgh trust fund. The
financial advisors asked Stewart to put another $250,000 into the Pittsburgh
account. Stewart reversed his earlier approval, and refused saying the
contract was
"vague" and asked for a more detailed contract. He apparently knew that the
financial advisors could
take the money in that trust account without the knowledge or approval of
the board of directors, otherwise there was no reason to refuse to transfer
of the money. The financial advisors went behind Stewart's back to board
member Schaa and asked him to deposit the additional $250,000. Since the
transfer was already approved by AMORC's Board and Schaa did not know the
financial advisors could raid that account and take the money, he
transferred the money, thinking it was safely parked in an AMORC trust
account. The financial advisors took all the money in that account. (Stewart
claims since the insurance company that issued the fidelity bond did not
pursue the financial advisors, this proves the advisors were innocent of any
wrongdoing. However the bond covered only corporate officers, not
contractors who are not supposed to have access to AMORC's accounts. Since
the transfer of money to that account was approved, the bonding company
could not pursue ANYONE. Since they had paid out the claim to AMORC, before
they knew money was legally transferred to the trust fund, they were
entitled to get their money back.)
Just before the board of directors was tripled in size, Gary Stewart
transferred several million dollars to the trust in Andorra. Why? There were
no specific plans for the money; the board had not approved either the
borrowing or the transfer to Andorra.
AMORC's board tried to stop the transfer at the bank before the money
disappeared like the money in the Pittsburgh trust. The bank said go to
Stewart to get his approval to reverse the transfer. Stewart refused to stop
the transfer because he was traveling and didn't understand things and said
he would take care of it when he got back. An emergency meeting of the board
forced the issue and Stewart agreed to authorize the return of the money to
AMORC.
Stewart would not answer who had access to the money in the Andorra trust
fund. Since AMORC already had bank accounts and offices all around the
world, the whole scam of borrowing money and using trust funds seems to have
been a ploy to get large sums of money into accounts where it could be spent
without approval and supervision of the board of directors. The $750,000
taken by the financial advisors was never returned.
The Board was increased to include the European Grand Masters and when told
of the events they voted Stewart out of office.
Stewart made his own choices and determined his own fate.
Melanaigis
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