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lucky block How a TV ministry took over a family’s 400-acre Bahamas estate for a fraction of its value
A Miami retiree’s real estate transaction transferring oceanfront land to a TV ministry has triggered regret and a dispute over generational property in The Bahamas. Here is a timeline of how it happened.lucky block
July 2011Miami resident David Lawrence Adderely, then 74, made “an unsolicited call” to Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN), saying he owned land on Long Island in The Bahamas, which he wanted to donate to 3ABN in a “way that would allow him to achieve both tax benefits and income,” according to 3ABN attorney M. Gregory Simpson.
August 2011According to court records, Roy Hunt, 3ABN’s director of planned giving and trust services, visited Adderley in Miami to execute an irrevocable Charitable Remainder Unitrust, known as a CRUT. Adderley, a legally blind retired US Army colonel, signed the document as both grantor and trustee. It reads: If for any reason David Lawrence Adderley is unable or unwilling to serve as Trustee, then Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc., of West Frankfort, Illinois, shall serve as successor trustee.
December 2011According to Simpson, 3ABN engaged the Lewis & Longley law firm in The Bahamas to commission a boundary survey and prepare the property for sale. The network was expected to sell the land to fund the trust and provide Adderley with retirement income, but Simpson said 3ABN’s efforts to sell were unsuccessful.
January 2012Hunt came back to Miami and took Adderley to the Bahamian Consulate in Miami, where a notary witnessed Adderley’s execution of the three “indentures of conveyance,” transferring his land to the irrevocable trust. Records show that on that same day, Adderley signed a Notice of Resignation of Trustee. Under the terms of the trust, Adderley’s resignation meant 3ABN became the trustee.
August 2012The Investment Board in The Bahamas issued permits, under the International Persons Landholding Act of 1993, which was passed to help foreigners purchase property in The Bahamas. This allowed 3ABN to take possession of the property after Adderley’s death.
May 20133ABN’s auditing firm sent a letter to Adderley asking him to confirm his donation of the property to the network, according to Simpson. “At his home in Florida, with nobody from 3ABN present, Mr. Adderley signed his name to the letter, affirming that he agreed with the following statement: According to our records you have placed real estate with an appraised value of $[redacted] into a Charitable Remainder Unitrust Agreement. According to this Unitrust agreement, any amount distributed for charitable purposes will be as follows: 100% to Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc. of West Frankfort, Illinois for unrestricted purposes.”
July 2013Hunt sent Adderley a letter encouraging him to put his Miami residence into a separate revocable trust, but Adderley refused. The letter stated, “I also need for you to send a copy of your deed on the house you own and are placing in this Trust. This is the house you are living in at the present time,” Hunt wrote. “Our attorney will prepare this to be placed into your trust. You will have access to this deed at any and all times and the trust is totally yours, not 3ABN holding anything.”
August 2018Adderley filed a lawsuit at the US District Court in Miami, alleging 3ABN and its representatives misled a vulnerable, legally blind veteran who trusted them because of their affiliation with Seventh-day Adventism. In the suit, amended in April 2019, Adderley sought to undo the irrevocable trust involving the 419.5 acres valued at $32 million, saying he intended to donate only a portion of the land and leave the rest to his daughters. The suit’s defendants were 3ABN; Roy G. Hunt, Jr., 3ABN’s then-director of Planned Giving and Trust Services; James W. Gilley, the network’s then-president; Danny Shelton, founder and former president; and attorney Richard Barry Benton.
December 20193ABN asked US District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. to dismiss the suit. Scola dismissed most of the claims on grounds that Adderley failed to do his due diligence in understanding the terms of the agreement he signed, but declined to dismiss several key claims against 3ABN — among them civil theft and exploitation of an elderly person.
April 2020Adderley and 3ABN settled the lawsuit, with 3ABN agreeing to pay Adderley $3 million in exchange for full possession of the property. The settlement required Adderley to recant his allegations of fraud against the network, and he signed a letter stating: I no longer believe that the individuals and entities identified in the Adderley affidavit, including without limitation representatives of Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Inc. (‘‘Network”) and specifically Roy Hunt, Jr., engaged in improper or dishonest conduct of any kind in their dealings with me.
March 20233ABN filed a quieting title petition with the Supreme Court of The Bahamas, giving individuals with legal rights to the property 30 days to file their claims. Adderley’s cousin, Ambrose Adderley, responded with an adverse claim in an effort to retain what the family considers “generational property.” Relatives said Ambrose, a subsistence farmer, had been living on the property all of his life with his goats and crops.
September 2023Spectrum magazine, an independent nonprofit that focuses on the Seventh-day Adventist Church, published a story about the controversy that quoted Adderley restating his claim that he only intended to donate one to two acres and that 3ABN representatives misled him into signing the papers.
November 2023Ambrose filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of The Bahamas against the Attorney General of the Bahamas, the current Long Island police superintendent, 3ABN, Shelton and Rodgers, alleging “breach of duty causing loss and damage.” He asked the court to issue an injunction “restraining the defendants, their servants, and agents from entering or remaining on the property.”
November 2023According to Adderley’s daughter, Krystal Adderley, 3ABN reached out to Adderley through his former Miami attorney, Ross Kulberg, seeking his assistance with the quieting title case. Krystal said her father refused to sign the affidavit, which would have pitted him against his cousin Ambrose. When reached by a reporter, Kulberg denied contacting the family on behalf of 3ABN, but the reporter obtained text messages and emails he allegedly sent to the family along with a copy of a proposed affidavit that 3ABN wanted Adderley to sign.
August 2024The Bahamas Supreme Court issued an order on Ambrose’s behalf, allowing a surveyor to access the land to assess his claim to the property. Both sides await a final decision in the case
Sources: Miami federal court records, Bahamas Supreme Court records, letters and interviews.
Alva James Johnson is a freelance journalist in Collegedale, Tennessee, where she also works as an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Southern Adventist University.
This article was published in partnership with Spectrum, an independent magazine published by Adventists.
This story was originally published September 26, 2024, 1:57 PM.
Related stories from Miami Herald Real Estate News Miami retiree signs away Caribbean real estate to TV ministry, triggers generational property dispute September 26, 2024 1:55 PM National Scandals over the years at the Christian TV ministry known as 3ABN September 26, 2024 1:56 PM Get unlimited digital access #ReadLocalTry 1 month for $1
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