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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 19, 1982
PAGE 4
One of their primary responsibilities was to commence an investigation of
past conduct in the Church. This commission read:
Take whatever steps are necessary in order to become fully knowl
edgeable of all the phases and facets of the legal, financial and
other secular aspects of the Church, and all its affiliated
organizations, so that they may be better able to advise and
recommend regarding the same.
It is interesting to note that in other letters sent by Jack Kessler, he is
threatening to sue some of the very men that Mr. Armstrong commissioned to
conduct the investigation.
First Investigatory Steps
One of the first steps of the investigation was the retention of the outside
law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, one of the largest and most respected
law firms in the nation. Their reputation is above reproach, therefore, no
one would successfully be able to claim that they collaborated in a cover up
of any illegal matters that came to their attention.
A commensurate step was to initiate discussions between the new executive
and financial personnel of the Church and Arthur Andersen, the outside
auditors who had already been retained. They are one of the largest and
most respected accounting
firms
in the nation whose findings would also be
above reproach.
First Fruits of Investigation
The very day that another person's resignation was demanded, that other
person unilaterally signed a contract with the accounting firm of Kessler &
Kessler, one Kessler of which was the author of the "leaked" letter. The
other Kessler is his wife. The contract provided that Jack Kessler was to
serve as a consultant in the furnishing of advice in the area of accounting
with the Church, for a period of five years, at the tune of $12,500 per
month. An additional sum was to be paid should the demands of the Church
upon his unique expertise become too taxing.
Apparently it was felt that the auditing and accounting services of Arthur
Andersen, one of the world's largest accounting firms, was either not capa
ble of handling the task, or it was necessary to have Mr. Kessler's con
tinued involvement for other reasons.
The contract was immediately delivered to the Accounting Department with
instructions to commence issuing checks to the Kessler firm.
Two such
checks were issued. Once the Church investigation uncovered the Kessler
contract, the checks were ordered stopped. Mr. Kessler was advised that
the Church did not consider the contract binding upon it and refused to
honor the same.
The newspaper reports that Mr. Ressler does not know why he was excommuni
cated and suggested it might be because of his "friendship with Mr. Rader"
or because of his "unwillingness to lie about Stanley Rader." Mr. Kessler
omits his accusing the Church of "treachery" because it refused to honor
the five-year contract.