Paul F. Crouch, founder and president of Orange County-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, is the subject of an investigation by the ethics committee of the National Religious Broadcasters, according to Richard Bott Sr., chairman of the committee.
The investigation, examining some of Crouch's business practices, could lead to his expulsion from the voluntary organization.
"There have been allegations, which we are looking into," Bott said before this week's National Religious Broadcasters convention in Washington. Other sources in the organization confirmed this week that an inquiry is under way.
Bott, president of Bott Broadcasting in Independence, Mo., declined to provide details, but according to a 17-page complaint submitted to the ethics committee--copies of which have been provided to The Times--the allegations focus on Crouch's acquisition and building of new television stations over the past 16 years.
The Tustin-based Trinity network has undergone spectacular growth in the past 16 years. The network and subsidiary organizations own or control more television stations than any other single owner in the country. The network includes 17 full-power UHF stations and more than 75 low-power stations around the country, as well as at least 20 stations abroad.
The committee investigating Crouch held a secret, 14-hour committee meeting in Los Angeles in late September, during the western regional convention of the National Religious Broadcasters, according to one of those who attended the session but asked not to be identified.
The complaint was filed by the Rev. Keith A. Houser of Dallas. Houser has been battling Crouch for the past six years in the courts and before the Federal Communications Commission for control of WTBY-TV, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
In his complaint to the National Religious Broadcasters, Houser repeated charges made in a lawsuit and before the FCC alleging that Crouch unethically took over the station, which Houser said he founded. Houser alleged that Crouch joined with other station board members, creditors and a banker and "cut deals with these parties without my prior knowledge and virtually started a hostile takeover of the television station."
Houser also charged that the takeover was part of "the \o7 modus operandi \f7 of Paul Crouch in the taking of several other television stations" or building or buying new stations that undermined the audience of existing Christian stations.
