Former Ensign Peak portfolio manager David Nielsen will share his experience on exposing details of LDS Church finances

For the first time, the whistleblower will speak publicly about revealing the size and use of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ investment portfolio. David Nielsen, a former portfolio manager for the LDS Church’s investment arm, Ensign Peak, blew the whistle on the church’s $100 billion reserve portfolio and misuse of charitable donations. He has never spoken about his experience or told his story publicly, but that’s about to change.

60 Minutes will air a report, including an interview with Nielsen, on Sunday, May 14.

How did we get here?

In November 2019, David Nielsen, a former money manager at Ensign Peak, the investment management branch of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, files a whistleblower complaint with the IRS. Nielsen reveals that Ensign Peak had a $100 billion reserve portfolio from stockpiling charitable donations (given as tithing and other monetary donations by members) rather than using them for charitable purposes—possibly breaching federal tax rules. 

The whistleblower complaint accuses LDS Church leaders of misleading members about how their donations are spent. (Members are encouraged to donate 10% of their earnings as tithings to the church to remain in good standing and participate in religious ceremonies and services in its temples.) The complaint also accuses the church of using those tax-exempt donations for business ventures like the City Creek shopping center. 

Come January 2023, Nielsen calls on the Senate to investigate the LDS Church and Ensign Peak Advisors for tax fraud. He files a 90-page memorandum with the Senate Finance Committee, which shows “evidence of false statements, systematic accounting fraud” and violations of tax laws. It goes on to say, “For at least 22 years, [Ensign Peak] and certain senior executives have perpetrated an unlawful scheme that relies on willfully and materially false statements to the IRS and the SEC, so this for-profit, securities investment business that unfairly competes with large hedge funds can masquerade as a tax-exempt, charitable organization.” 

Following the whistleblower complaint, the LDS Church responded with a statement, asserting that “The Church complies with all applicable law governing our donations, investments, taxes, and reserves.” The LDS Church has since agreed that was a lie and the church did intentionally violate the law, per a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The SEC settlement outlines the efforts made by Ensign Peak, with the knowledge and approval of the LDS Church’s First Presidency, to hide the nature and wealth of the Church’s holdings. Ensign Peak broke the law by creating 13 shell companies to avoid disclosing the size of the Church’s portfolio to the SEC and the public. To what end? “The Church was concerned that disclosure of the assets…would lead to negative consequences in light of the size of the Church’s portfolio.“ One might assume those negative consequences included church members’ refusing to pay to tithe if they knew the billions in the Church’s “reserve funds.”

Find a timeline of the LDS Church’s history of concealing its wealth from federal authorities and the public here.

There are other cases and investigations regarding the LDS Church’s finances, at least partially as fallout from Nielsen’s whistleblower complaint, that are still outstanding. James Huntsman, brother of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., filed suit against the LDS Church, claiming the church misused the money he donated (tithed) to the LDS Church. Nielsen filed a statement in the case, claiming the LDS church used tithing money for improper purposes, such as funding its mall, the City Creek Center. The IRS could also further investigate the claims made by the whistleblower complaint that are under its purview.

About the upcoming 60 Minutes report on LDS church finances whistleblower, “The Church’s Firm”

60 Minutes “reports on the $100 billion fortune built by the secretive investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a whistleblower’s allegation that instead of spending the money on good works, hundreds of millions were used to bail out businesses with church ties. Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with David Nielsen, a former senior portfolio manager at the church’s firm, about his role in a federal investigation and decision to come forward. Guy Campanile is the producer.”

The 60 Minutes report will air Sunday, May 14 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and Paramount+ and Tuesday, at 8 p.m. ET, on the CBS News app.

This is perhaps the most attention the LDS Church has received on the newsmagazine program since Mike Wallace interviewed LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley on 60 Minutes back in 1996. 

Six years ago, Taylor Randall, University of Utah’s then-dean of the David Eccles School of Business, stood before a tough crowd. There were no hardball questions about research funding, campus safety, equity or graduation rates. Rather, Randall encouraged his daughter’s classmates to find their passion at Clayton Middle School Career Day. 

“I remember that speech,” says Randall, whose appointment in 2021 as president of the University of Utah has thrust him into the limelight. “It’s true,” he says of a story he shared with the kids, “I did want to be a pro basketball player when I was their age. I lived and breathed basketball, but unfortunately I stopped growing at 5-foot, 9-inches…and I couldn’t jump. It was very clear to me early on that I was in deep trouble.” While Randall may not be living out his NBA fantasies, he says he is living the dream with a career in education. 

Pursuing Passion

The first Utes alum in 50 years to lead his alma mater, the accounting major enrolled at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he spent eight years earning an MBA and Ph.D. in operations and information management. “I knew I needed to earn a living, but I wanted something with intrinsic value,” he says. “While at Wharton, I really began to admire my professors. They could work on projects they were passionate about and remain intellectually curious, and they could instill confidence in their students. I loved the idea that, like them, I could build organizations and also build people.”

After nearly accepting a teaching position with the University of Chicago, Randall felt a tug toward the Wasatch mountain range. “The job market in Utah academics is thin, so I felt lucky to get a job as a professor of accounting at the UofU in the late ’90s.” Several teaching awards and a decade later, his 2009 appointment to dean of the business school likely came as no surprise to those within the department. In the succeeding decade, under his watch, it grew five-fold and its entrepreneurial program ranked 5th in the country. 

Now leading the charge for the entire University since August 2021, Randall is brimming with plans for the school that “give everyone else FOMO,” but he rejects being credited as the one with all the great ideas. “I wouldn’t describe myself as an ‘ideas guy,’ but I think I am someone who recognizes great ideas and gives them a chance,” he says. “That’s the fun part of my job: meeting people who have energy and passion around their great idea—and then clearing the path for it. I hope at the end of the day, that is what I’m known for.”

‘Commuter Campus’ No More

As Randall works to add “5,000 beds in five years” to accommodate the University’s growth and change its long-standing reputation as a “commuter school” (citing data that shows on-campus students do better than their off-campus counterparts), he says he envisions variations of the Lassonde Institute popping up all over campus, like the Impact & Prosperity Epicenter that broke ground last September.

“I think we’re in a moment where universities have to completely redefine the relationship they have with students and their community,” says Randall.  “A student today isn’t like a student 20 or 30 years ago. A teacher’s job is no longer to disseminate information, but to teach students how to use the information at their fingertips.”

‘Who We Include’

Randall is taking seriously the concern among some that an internal hire—particularly a hometown white man—is perpetuating what some see as the “establishment” rather than a pivot. How to be more inclusive of a changing student body demographic and addressing campus safety top his priority list. 

In March, the U held its first-ever campus safety conference with Jill McCluskey as the opening speaker. Her daughter Lauren was killed on the U’s campus in 2018. McCluskey acknowledged the safety improvements made at the U since but emphasized the improvements still needed, especially concerning cross-campus communication.

When it comes to inclusiveness, Randall recognized his limitations upon taking office and created a transition team to improve outcomes. Composed of a broad cross-section of the university from students to hospital staff to department chairs, he asked for their recommendations to improve, among other things, sustainability, equity, diversity and inclusion. Through dozens of forums and the creation of the Presidential Commission on Equity and Belonging, he says he’s working to address the harms of racism in the UofU community.

“For too long, universities have made themselves important by excluding people,” he says. “We have to be known for who we include.”

Meeting Students Where They Are

Those middle-schoolers Randall spoke to a handful of years ago? Many are newly-minted college students representing a generation described as more values-driven in their approach to job prospects. Many students want to infuse more meaning into their careers when they enter the workforce. Randall hopes to turn students’ interests into projects that combine profit and purpose—leading to personal satisfaction while tackling Utah’s biggest challenges.

During his first year and a half, he has met with members of the legislature, leaders of other Utah-based universities and community advocates to “clear a path” for student collaboration that could solve our state’s most pressing concerns. “I want people to say, ‘Look what the U is doing’, then join us,” he says. From the Great Salt Lake’s toxic dust, to poor air quality along the Wasatch Front, to inequitable health outcomes throughout the state, Randall thinks the UofU is poised to find the solutions.

“Ideas that change society come from universities,” he says, adding that the UofU is the largest research university in the state by far. “We don’t just want to do research for research’s sake, we actually want to take it into the community so students can see how it changes not only the lives of others but their own.”  

Eat, Sleep, Learn

UofU’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute opened its doors in 2016. One of the first buildings of its kind, it offers students a combined residential and learning space complete with studios where they can not only eat, sleep and socialize but also build prototypes and launch companies. 

Randall plans to model the success of the Lassonde with the Impact & Prosperity Epicenter which will contain two research centers: the Sorenson Impact Center and the Center for Business, Health and Prosperity, in addition to housing nearly 800 students.