Disputed control of church assets valued in the tens of millions saw the High Court intercede in a power struggle following a schism within a Samoan Seventh Day Adventist church group currently spending thirty million dollars on a new church in Mangere, South Auckland. At issue: the whereabouts of a one million dollar Bitcoin purchase and the disputed transfer of multiple church assets into control of a breakaway group.
The Samoan Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church was de-registered as a charity in 2021 after the Charities Registration Board decided its founder, Pastor Willie Papu, was party to gross mismanagement of Church assets and had exercised undue influence over poor quality investment decisions.
Pastor Papu is currently disqualified from acting in a management role with any charitable entity for a four year period, ending early 2025.
The Church has accumulated substantial assets with tithes drawn from members of its congregation. The full extent of assets held is not publicly available; financial statements have not been filed on the Charities Register as required. The High Court was told the Church currently controls nineteen separate properties.
A group of Church elders allied with former Church leader Pastor Siaosi Toailoa claim some members of the Church, allegedly at the bidding of Pastor Papu, have improperly taken control of Church assets.
In 2020, a new church named as the Universal Remnant Church of the Living God was established in Samoa. Pastor Papu is named as its spiritual leader.
It is alleged named Remnant supporters have improperly transferred four of the Independent Seventh Day Adventist Church properties to a separate company they control: Sunrise Global Homes Ltd.
The Independent Church wants to know what has happened to a 2021 one million dollar Bitcoin purchase made allegedly at the behest of Pastor Papu. The High Court was told the Bitcoin wallet was stored on a computer at the Church’s Mangere headquarters. It is alleged Pastor Papu’s son took the computer, its location now unknown.
Pastor Toailoa, and his supporters, sought pre-trial High Court approval for their legal fees to come out of Church assets before triggering legal action against Pastor Papu and named Remnant allies. They seek a ‘prospective costs’ order, labelled by lawyers as a Beddoe order.
Beddoe orders reverse usual court procedure; the court rules upfront as to who will pay legal costs, rather than ruling on costs after a hearing takes place.
Beddoe applications are commonly sought in disputes over trust assets where trustees want to make sure they will not be forced to pay legal costs personally. They want the trust to pay.
Justice Johnstone ruled the Independent Church and its associated Property Trust are to pay the reasonable legal costs of legal action taken by Pastor Toailoa and his supporters to investigate Church operations.
The relationship between the Independent Church, its Property Trust and the newly-founded Remnant Church require examination, he said.
Toailoa v. Eliu & ors – High Court (31.05.24)
24.143