A friend of mine, let’s call him Joe, was at Flag one day and was approached by one of the reges and asked to contribute more money to the Superpower Building. Joe was already a Cornerstone Member, meaning he had contributed over $35,000 to the building.
“I thought you had all the money for the building,” Joe commented. “Why do you need more?”
“Well,” explained the reg, “Some of that money was used for the Oak Cove Building.”
“What do you mean?” said Joe, outraged. “I paid for the Superpower Building, not the Oak Cove Building.”
The reg tried to explain how the funds all went into a general building fund, and it was used for any of the Flag buildings and so on. But Joe was having none of it. He refused to contribute further. Now he’s quit the Church in protest of this and other outpoints.
Collecting money for one thing and then spending it on another could be called many things. Fraud is one of them.