The politically connected sect known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church preaches a “hatred” for the world. Women are treated as second-class citizens and homosexuality is not tolerated.
The Australian Tax Office conducted an extraordinary unannounced raid this week on the global headquarters of businesses run by the conservative Christian sect the Exclusive Brethren searching for evidence of misuse of funds by high-net-worth individuals in the church.
Its followers, known to each other as “saints”, believe Hales is “so close to the Lord Jesus that he can feel his heartbeat”. A senior staff member of the Brethren’s “parent company”, Universal Business Team, or UBT, downplayed the raid in a note to staff as the organisation “working with the ATO to support with a regular audit”.
A spokesperson for UBT said the company had “always sought to abide by the rules set by Australian Taxation Office, and of course we are cooperating fully with their current information gathering process.” They are also banned from listening to radio or watching television and their access to the internet is strictly controlled by one of the companies raided this week, the Universal Business Team.They have also been highly successful at winning government contracts, including recently lucrative contracts for the supply of COVID tests.
“I live a very peaceful life now and sometimes the juxtaposition between my two lives, inside the Brethren and out – I feel like a foreigner in my own country. It was so toxic.” Documents produced for a recent “Strive” forum to advertise these projects to the PBCC’s flock say UBT turns over up to $500 million a year. The profits, according to the documents, are “invested in” 124 Plymouth Brethren schools and other charities such as public-facing charity the Rapid Relief Team.
It is also the central company from which members rent phones and computers. These are fitted with Brethren approved software, including a program called Streamline 3 which means UBT administrators can monitor the browsing history and GPS location of Brethren members and remotely capture images of their screen.