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Sex, lies & television

"It just didn't make sense."

That's what Jonathan Rovetto thought when he heard his employer, Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), fired Brittany Koper last fall, alleging embezzlement and fraud. After all, Koper is the granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch. Brittany and her husband Michael, also a TBN employee, made more than $200,000 a year and did not live extravagantly. Brittany was a rising star on track, some people thought, to take over the network one day. Why would she embezzle?

Rovetto had done work for the Trinity Broadcasting Network for nine years, seven as a freelancer and two years full-time as an assistant engineer, so he knew Koper. She had helped orient him when he came on full-time. Soon she became director of finance and saw for the first time, she says, "the unlawful distribution of the TBN Companies' charitable assets to Trinity Broadcasting's directors," including Paul and Jan Crouch and other Crouch family members.

This language comes from a lawsuit Koper filed in February that describes-in sensational detail-claims of financial mismanagement, fraud, physical intimidation, and sexual harassment. Koper's lawsuit says the "unlawful financial transactions" exceed $50 million. Trinity has since filed at least five lawsuits of its own. Even though TBN spokesman Colby May says Koper is attempting to create a "media circus" to distract from the real issues, May has also taken an aggressive stand in the media.