Scandals in international organizations are not new. The cover-up of sexual abuse at Hilsong Church led to the collapse of the megachurch’s reputation and the departure of its leaders. The scandal involving Michael Bickle of the International House of Prayer resulted in the loss of over $500,000 a month and the closing of the organization. A BBC investigation revealed a horrific evidence of torture and rape in T.B. Joshua’s ministry. Today we are witnessing a scandal unfolding around David Gordon Hathaway, a well-known British evangelist in the former Soviet Union.
From a prisoner of conscience to a manipulator of finances
David Hathaway began his ministry by smuggling Bibles into socialist bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He was apprehended by Czechoslovakian secret service police for doing this and sentenced to a long term in prison. He was imprisoned for about a year until he was released at the request of the opposition leader and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
In the 1980s, Hathaway continued his ministry in the socialist countries and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the newly formed countries that emerged from its wreckage. He was well respected in the Protestant evangelical movement in those countries. Many Christian believers experienced a great shock when the truth about David Hathaway’s secret life came to light.
He had scored bingo by manipulating finances, having immoral behavior, and by his brutal persecution of the dissatisfied using the gang-style intimidation techniques.
Criminal methods are used in response to the denunciation
Last year, former employees of the International Office of David Hathaway Ministries published an open letter to the British Evangelical Alliance outlining the blatant abuse. According to the former employees, some of whom are pastors, theologians, businessmen, and journalists, after they approached the mission’s Board of Directors with information about years of abuse by David Hathaway, they became subjects of unprecedented pressure experiencing intimidation and receiving threats that their personal reputations will be destroyed. Even at this time they are asking to remain anonymous because they are afraid of the thuggish methods used by Mr. Hathaway and his inner circle.
There were quite frank questions that were also asked of Mr. Hathaway personally, the chairman, and the Board members, but no answers were forthcoming. On the contrary, David Hathaway’s office has ignored any attempt to clarify the situation.
A Baltic law firm that has a dubious reputation going back to the 90s when crime was rampant in Eastern European countries was hired to shut the mouths of disgruntled employees. Taking advantage of the corrupt law enforcement agencies in the Baltic States, these people, although without much success, are trying to build a criminal case against anyone who has made claims of moral and financial wrongdoing on the part of David Hathaway. Annual expenditures of tens and hundreds of thousands of euros are paid to bribe the officials who support the falsification of charges against the unwanted, to pay the legal fees, and so on. All that is done using the money that believers donate to “preach the gospel”.
Kickbacks and financial opacity
Having worked for many years in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Hathaway was probably infected by the general atmosphere of total corruption and lawlessness that prevailed in most of the Soviet bloc countries during those years. In those countries, there is such a phenomenon as a “kickback”. It means that when there is a large project, part of the money allocated for its realization unofficially goes to a personal account of the top manager in exchange for the favor. In Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, this is a popular way of personal enrichment for unscrupulous people.
It is even more surprising that, according to one of the leading finance specialists in the International Office of David Hathaway Ministries, the well-known evangelist personally hinted and then received funds to his personal account, and in case of disagreement, he threatened to stop any cooperation. The minimum kickback amount was 10% of the total budget of evangelistic projects. The author has screenshots of the correspondence, as well as the bank statements confirming the payments of large amounts to Hathaway’s personal accounts.
The source claims to have personally transferred 100,000 euros during the last two years alone and handed over 500,000+ in cash during personal meetings. Hathaway was not interested in how the non-profit organization was supposed to receive the cash and, more importantly, account for such sums. Moreover, the workers claim that he explicitly forced them to use a slush fund when making payments during the evangelistic campaigns. This helped him hide his personal enrichment from the Board of Directors.
David Hathaway Ministries is known to have had serious problems with financial transparency and violations in reporting profit to UK auditing authorities in the past. However, with the help of certain attorneys who were paid a high price with the money from the “gospel preaching” funds, he has consistently managed to get away with all of it. Will he succeed this time?
The Ukrainian office is a black hole
Even though we can find some documents at the international office, the real “black hole” is the Ministry office in Ukraine. The complete financial opacity of its work has raised questions even among the Board members in the UK, but no answer has been received.
Could it be that the answer can be found in the luxurious lifestyle of the evangelist who has not received any official income for more than 30 years in his country, yet he buys expensive yachts, new business-class automobiles, and even houses?
After the International Ministry Office was dispersed, Hathaway has stopped all evangelistic campaigns. Instead, he focused on “humanitarian aid” for Ukraine, but even this aid was carried out by the dark methods with the use of money transfers to the personal cards of the employees who do not report these sums in any way to the auditing authorities in their own country or in the UK. It is no secret that for such corrupt benefactors, the tragedy of the people of Ukraine is often a tool for personal enrichment.
Twenty years of a relationship outside of marriage
A person’s private life is usually not a subject of close scrutiny. Except for the private lives of public figures, and even more so for clergy who are supposed to be moral guides. Unfortunately, one of the main allegations, along with the manipulation of finances, is the immoral lifestyle of the evangelist who has been cohabitating with his assistant Katie Morris for two decades without being married.
This has long been an open secret as Hathaway was repeatedly warned against immoral and seductive behavior by Chairman Richard Parkhouse and ministers in the countries where his evangelistic campaigns took place.
In fact, the personal assistant has positioned herself as his unofficial spouse, staying overnight in Hathaway’s hotel rooms, living on his yacht, and in his home. Moreover, please excuse me for being blunt, she was hanging her underwear to dry right in the ministry office. This was reported by the staff of the International Office and was confirmed by several ministers from Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Israel, and Latvia, who personally observed Hathaway and Morris’s relationship with bewilderment. Hathaway is now over 90 years old and it is hard to suspect him now of immoral sexual behavior. But when it all started, some 30 years ago, they were both capable and healthy enough to forge an intimate relationship that was not registered or blessed in any church.
Questions for David Hathaway and the people who continue to cover him up
Did David Hathaway solicit (hint at receiving) and receive finances (kickbacks) from his employees, both in cash and as transfers to his account, in the amount of 10 percent of the budget allocated to David Hathaway’s evangelistic projects?
Has David Hathaway repeatedly had problems with financial opacity and violations in reporting the financial records to British government auditors and has he received fines and injunctions for this?
Is David Hathaway Ministry ready to provide financial documents for an independent audit in England to check the financial transactions, for example the ones with the office in Ukraine, for the last 5-10 years?
Has David Hathaway Ministry had any complaints from other Board members about financial opacity in its dealings with the office in Ukraine over the past 30 years?
Has David Hathaway personally had any official income in England over the last 30 years and what money does he use to buy and maintain his personal yachts, buy new luxury cars, houses, have a collection of rare automobiles, travel to Switzerland, Germany, and Great Britain and stay in luxury hotels there?
Is David Hathaway’s ministry and activities accountable to any church body in England on issues of Christian morality and financial transparency?
Henry Rosenwald
