It's a con.. A racket... A joke....

He was Mormon royalty. Now his lawsuit against the church is a rallying cry.

By Michelle Boorstein

James Huntsman's family is sometimes called the "Mormon Kennedys," with members whose titles have included governor, ambassador, billionaire and apostle. For decades, he was a committed church member, tithing 10 percent of his income, as the faith expects.

But when another church member filed an IRS whistleblower complaint in 2019, Huntsman's theological and spiritual doubts shifted to anger, and he demanded his money back. David Nielsen's complaint alleged that the church had been hoarding $100 billion in tithes, and had used a few billion in tax-free dollars meant for charity to build an upscale mall.

Now Huntsman, a film distributor and father of five, has become an unlikely and high-profile critic of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at a time when members' demands for transparency are rising and church growth rates are dramatically slowing. A lawsuit that Huntsman filed in 2021 accusing the church of fraud initially was rejected by a federal judge but was revived a few weeks ago. A federal appeals court panel voted 2-1 that jurors should hear Huntsman's argument and his demand for a refund of $5 million minimum.

Huntsman - son of the late, famed philanthropist and billionaire industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr., and brother to former Utah governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Jr. - is becoming the face of internal LDS discussions about topics such as whether the finances of a religious denomination should be confidential and whether there should be tighter limits on what constitutes "religious activity" that's tax-free.

A slew of Mormon podcasts and blogs in recent weeks have featured the new Huntsman ruling, delving into legal and theological debates and expressing varying levels of support for the suit. They've also reflected something experts on the church say feels new: Voices for reform in one of the country's most loyal and deferential faith groups are getting louder.

Huntsman's suit and Nielsen's complaint have been mentioned as a trigger by many recent exiters from the church, said John Dehlin, host of the long-running Mormon Stories podcast, popular with questioning and progressive members of Mormonism or other faith groups as well as those who have left the LDS church. Dehlin was excommunicated in 2015 for trying on his show to convince people that some church teachings are wrong. Two high-ranking church officials came on his show this year and expressed doubt about the church and pointed to the cases of Nielsen and Huntsman as fuel.

"Even the church's most ardent defenders know there is some credibility to their concerns," Dehlin said. "Money strikes people on a whole different, visceral level," he said, than do questions about Mormon history or theology when it comes to social issues including race or sexuality.

"It's such a sacrifice to pay 10 percent of your income; it's so personal," Dehlin said. "And when you find out the church doesn't need your money and has been evading responsibility, that impacts people directly."

Sam Brunson, a tax and religion expert at Loyola University Law School who writes a popular blog about the LDS church, thinks Huntsman's suit is frivolous and predicts no criminal charges will stem from Nielsen's complaint. But he says he hears about the cases a "surprising amount."

"Historically, active members of the church tended to not really brook criticism of the church . . . You assume best faith for the church. Sort of: 'If the church is doing this, there must be a reason we just don't know,'" Brunson said.

These two cases, he noted, build on several other very controversial church moves, including its leading the charge against legalizing same-sex marriage in California in 2008 and for enacting a policy in 2015 barring children of same-sex couples from being baptized before ending it a few years later in 2019.

"Slowly, people aren't giving the church the benefit of the doubt," Brunson said.

LDS spokesman Doug Andersen declined to comment on Nielsen's complaint or on the potential impact of the men's allegations. About Huntsman and the new appeals court ruling, a brief church statement said money used for the mall was "invested earnings on reserve funds."

"There was no fraud," the statement says. "The Church looks forward to defending these facts in the next phase of the legal process."

The church has until Sept. 20 to ask a larger panel of the 9th Circuit Appeals Court to rehear the Huntsman case. That panel could uphold the recent ruling in favor of Huntsman, which would move the dispute to the discovery process and a jury trial. It could reverse the recent ruling, meaning the suit would be over and the church would win. Or the two sides could settle.

The status of Nielsen's complaint is not clear. The IRS hasn't said anything publicly since he filed it in 2019, but that's normal for the agency. In February of this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the church's investment arm - where Nielsen worked - with filing 22 years of misstatements about its investments and creating shell companies to keep those transactions secret. Intentionally misstating or omitting facts on certain SEC forms is a federal crime. The investment arm, called Ensign Peak Advisers, agreed to pay a $4 million fine, and the church agreed to pay $1 million, the SEC said in February.

Nielsen's attorney, Michael Sullivan, said they "have been contacted by authorities over the past several months and have had ongoing communications [in recent days] about the matters Dave has reported."