By R.L. Stollar, HA Community Coordinator
Bill Gothard, who resigned last year from the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP) on account of sexual abuse and harassment charges, is not the only member of the Gothard family to face accusations of illegal activity. Florida State Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit last December against Gothard’s brother, David Locke Gothard. The lawsuit alleges that David engaged in racketeering and fraud, stealing millions of dollars from his victims — primarily elderly people — by means of a Ponzi scheme. According to Naples Daily News,
The state’s lawsuit alleges that since 2003, David Locke Gothard and his companies engaged in racketeering and other illegal activity in Florida that continues today. The defendants transferred patents between themselves, solicited investors by using false representations about patents, their “alter ego” companies and products, which produced no sales, the lawsuit says, alleging they then created bogus documents to operate a “patent assertion entity,” collecting millions in illegally-obtained funds.
Roger Nixon, an alleged victim of David’s Ponzi scheme, told Naples Daily News that David used his brother Bill’s ministry — IBLP, which created a popular homeschooling curriculum, the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) — to attract potential targets. Nixon says Gothard defrauded him out of his entire savings:
“He’s defrauded us out of our life savings,” said Nixon, adding that he lost $285,000 after meeting Gothard through his church a decade ago. “We’re flat broke. We didn’t have hot water for a year.” Nixon said Gothard used his brother’s church ministry “to lure victims in the name of Christianity.”… “David Gothard makes Bernie Madoff look like a kid playing in a sandbox,” Nixon said.
This is not the first time that David Gothard has been in trouble with the law. He was sentenced to 2 years in a California prison in 1986 for illegally selling over a million dollars in securities. David is also not the only Gothard brother to be in trouble. Another brother of Bill’s, Steve Gothard, was accused in the 1980’s of sexually preying on his employees.
Homeschoolers Anonymous 
And people thought this was a godly family.
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When is Bill Gothard going to be brought up on charges for sexually molesting young women and girls?!
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It was found that no criminal activity took place, although he spent years grooming and sexually harassing young girls who had been entrusted into his ministry office. So he was creepy enough to make these young, trusting. naive girls uncomfortable and depressed, making them feel they were less than virtuous while not actually committing physical sexual abuse.
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As in “he knew exactly where and when to stop so everything he did was LEGAL”? Think about that.
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While this isn’t even close to what Bernie Madoff did, it still strikes me as comically dumb. How can an immediate family produce so much fraud, abuse, and deceit? You’d think there would be at least one person who turned out… uh, normal, I guess.
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Even the Borgias and Capones had one White Sheep in the family — one of the Borgias became a Saint and one relative of Al Capone a clean cop.
But then, the Borgias and the Capones weren’t MenaGAWD Dynasties.
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Why am I not surprised by this. The home schooling community needs to take a good hard look at their leaders, and act as necessary. No blind loyalty.
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So… Bill’s brother uses IBLP to further his Ponzi scheme. What next? Was Bill unaware of what his brother was doing?
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Bill was too busy with his teenage interns.
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And all this surprises people?
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I would really like to know more about the elder William Gothard. What did he do to teach his boys to be scam artists? Were there any other brothers than Bill, Steve & David? Worth looking into, seems like a family trademark.
I am soooo sick of this bull. Why does the church not stand up and hold these schmucks accountable?
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Well, for one thing, there is no “church” here. Gothard ran a free-wheeling organization that operated without accountability. Many churches tried to speak up about the abuses of Bill Gothard’s organization but of course Gothard and his followers thought he was too wise to have to listen. I know what I’m talking about because my family used to be in Bill Gothard’s program. He is a rascal.
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My old DM used to say “Most cults are started so the cult leader can get (a) rich, (b) laid, or (c) both.
Looks like with the Gothards, one brother got rich and the other got to ogle and not-quite-grope the teenage interns.
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