The Pesch’s began a series of building / renovation and real estate projects in the mid 1980’s that relied heavily on the continued support both practical and financial of the Team as a whole and then used the income generated by the project’s rising value to start the next project, moving funds back and forth between Australia and Europe, all the time feeding forward into enterprises they owned; building up their own personal wealth in the name of the Lord, building and accumulating assets for the kingdom of God but which they owned and had ultimate control of.
(Lack of accountability and practical support from others are a vital fuel source needed to maintain the progress).
The foundations holding up the continued expansion of the Pesch’s assets were tax evasion and misrepresentation of business income & turnover figures to various lending institutions, who would then pour funds into new projects; which were then diverted into other projects (often in another country) to keep the whole enterprise afloat.
Ultimately the Pesch’s ended up with a very fragile house of cards which could collapse at any minute, thus it became vital to maintain the continued commitment of the Team to avoid implosion.
As relationships started to strain it became necessary to be more forceful because ‘It’s for the benefit of the kingdom’ and ‘It’s part of God’s plan to save mankind’ and ‘It’s the Lord’s will’ therefore they could justify spiritual coercion (read: blackmail) and interpret dissension as backsliding, heresy, attacks of the devil...and so on.
To help the whole process the Pesch family started a scheme called ‘Bank in the Bank’ which they claimed had been told to they by God through a prophesy from Christel Pesch. In the ‘Bank in the Bank’ scheme Team members would invest funds into a pool of money which were then used to support the asset building process; they would then be paid back with support in kind (in reality this was rare) or become participants in select projects (normally the ones which the Pesch family were loosing interest in).
This draws people into projects heavily burdened with debt over which they have limited or no control, and from which they can never retrieve their investment.
This entire web was riddled with appallingly bad accounting processes, a lack of proper documentation, a lack of proper contractual agreements and no legal oversight. Group members have become entangled in a web of debt with no way out, with the only notes and paperwork held in the possession of Klaus Pesch.
The Pesch’s began a series of building / renovation and real estate projects in the mid 1980’s that relied heavily on the continued support both practical and financial of the Team as a whole and then used the income generated by the project’s rising value to start the next project, moving funds back and forth between Australia and Europe, all the time feeding forward into enterprises they owned; building up their own personal wealth in the name of the Lord, building and accumulating assets for the kingdom of God but which they owned and had ultimate control of.
(Lack of accountability and practical support from others are a vital fuel source needed to maintain the progress).
The foundations holding up the continued expansion of the Pesch’s assets were tax evasion and misrepresentation of business income & turnover figures to various lending institutions, who would then pour funds into new projects; which were then diverted into other projects (often in another country) to keep the whole enterprise afloat.
Ultimately the Pesch’s ended up with a very fragile house of cards which could collapse at any minute, thus it became vital to maintain the continued commitment of the Team to avoid implosion.
As relationships started to strain it became necessary to be more forceful because ‘It’s for the benefit of the kingdom’ and ‘It’s part of God’s plan to save mankind’ and ‘It’s the Lord’s will’ therefore they could justify spiritual coercion (read: blackmail) and interpret dissension as backsliding, heresy, attacks of the devil...and so on.
To help the whole process the Pesch family started a scheme called ‘Bank in the Bank’ which they claimed had been told to they by God through a prophesy from Christel Pesch. In the ‘Bank in the Bank’ scheme Team members would invest funds into a pool of money which were then used to support the asset building process; they would then be paid back with support in kind (in reality this was rare) or become participants in select projects (normally the ones which the Pesch family were loosing interest in).
This draws people into projects heavily burdened with debt over which they have limited or no control, and from which they can never retrieve their investment.
This entire web was riddled with appallingly bad accounting processes, a lack of proper documentation, a lack of proper contractual agreements and no legal oversight. Group members have become entangled in a web of debt with no way out, with the only notes and paperwork held in the possession of Klaus Pesch.
By the late eighties the Team became a group of tightly controlled families, unable to leave the team because they stood to loose large sums of money. The members conformed to the rules and regulations set down in order to make life as bearable as possible, over committing their time and finances in-order to protect their family, their position in the group and their investment and basically agreeing with anything that is preached in-order to avoid public humiliation and spiritual chastisement, typical characteristics of a cult. It has remained like this until today.
The Pesch family were able to achieve this because they built an environment where everyone was starved of approval or praise for work well done, working hard to maintain their precious spiritual position in ‘The kingdom’ and fearful of loosing ‘The covering’ afforded to them by Klaus Pesch; there was a huge amount of approval and kudos to be gained by supporting the Pesch’c works and the aims of the fellowship. Eventually it became more attractive than a successful family life and the family started to take second place.
Every major project undertaken by the Pesch family cost the fellowship at least one family. Generally a family of committed and trusted team members would be drawn closer to the Pesch family’s inner circle of trust to share the vision for a new and promising project.
They would be included as an integral part of the plan going forward and this would generally be because they had access to funds, enough funds to cover what was required to get the project of the ground.
The pattern usually followed a standard course whereby they would invest their funds into the project at hand, usually with poor documentation, on a basis of trust, most thinking that a hand shake and a gentleman’s word is enough in the ‘Kingdom of God’, If you can’t trust your own spiritual leader then who in the world can you trust,
It was very common for Klaus Pesch to borrow money in one country and invest it in another, distorting an audit trail, and making it almost impossible for the investors to follow the path of their investment, This was the wonder of the ‘Bank in the Bank’ mechanism, families would be investing in a project in their own country, but in reality their funds had actually left the country to settle debts elsewhere.
Eventually once the project is up and running they would gradually start to slide down the ladder of favour, moving further and further away from the Pesch family. Sometimes this could take a year or more, but sometimes this could occur within months.
Suddenly the family or contributor finds themselves ‘out of favour’ with the Pesch family and effectively on the outside of the inner circle of trust.
As time passes the Pesch family manipulate the rules and conditions surrounding the investment and participation agreements, often rolling the original invested amount into the next project and then another making it impossible for families or individuals to trace the passage of their funds and at the same time feeling themselves becoming more and more distant from the original project.
Eventually when they can bare no more abuse and fraud they cut their losses and leave the Team.
Everyone on the Team has been economically enslaved in one way or another, some families have been forced to sell their houses and make the funds available to Klaus Pesch and his plans, forced to sell expensive vehicles even forced to sell beloved pet to make themselves available for the so called mission.
Many families in
This is how Klaus Pesch and his sons have built up their personal wealth in
