What were the outcomes of any investigations into Paula White's ministries or finances?
Executive summary
Paula White’s ministries were the subject of multi-year federal and congressional scrutiny that produced no criminal charges but did surface troubling financial revelations, internal turmoil and ultimately the collapse of Without Walls International Church; reporting shows audits and Senate probes raised questions about use of tax-exempt funds, the ministry’s non‑cooperation, and bankruptcy-linked insolvency [1] [2] [3]. Different outlets emphasize different outcomes—some stress the lack of prosecutable offenses, others the scale of questionable expenditures and institutional collapse—so the record is mixed and politically freighted [4] [5].
1. The congressional and federal inquiries: a multi-year probe with limited legal fallout
From roughly 2007 into the early 2010s, Paula White’s Without Walls ministry was swept into a high-profile multi-year review led by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and related congressional inquiries into televangelist finances; the committee examined spending patterns at several ministries amid concerns about misuse of donations and tax‑exempt status [6] [7] [8]. The investigations produced public audits and reporting but, according to multiple accounts, closed without criminal charges or major prosecutorial findings—reporters and watchdogs repeatedly note the probe “ended with no major findings or charges” or “few conclusions of note” [4] [3] [1].
2. Audit findings and the substance of the concerns: mansion, jet and family pay
Senate-released audits and summaries highlighted concrete red flags: reporting indicated Without Walls received large sums (cited figures include roughly $150 million over a multi-year period) and that ministry funds were used for high-value items such as a waterfront mansion, payments of over a million dollars in family salaries, and even a private jet in certain years—details widely repeated in investigative summaries and secondary accounts [2] [5] [1]. Those audits did not automatically translate into indictments, but they crystallized the central criticism: ministry resources were treated in ways that appeared to benefit leaders and relatives rather than being restricted to charitable work [2].
3. Non-cooperation, parallel IRS attention and internal fallout
Reporting records show that White’s organizations did not fully cooperate with some probes, a point underscored by multiple outlets and cited as complicating the committee’s work [3] [2]. In addition to congressional attention, Paula White and her then-husband faced a lengthy IRS inquiry reported by some outlets as about nine years long, adding another layer of scrutiny even as public reporting emphasizes the absence of criminal findings [9] [4].
4. Institutional consequences: bankruptcy and pastoral shifts
Whatever the criminal or civil legal outcomes, Without Walls International Church experienced severe institutional consequences: the congregation ultimately lost financial viability and the organization filed for bankruptcy protection in the 2010s, after which Paula White left that ministry and moved into other pastoral and media roles (sources place the bankruptcy filing in either 2012 or 2014 in different accounts) [10] [11] [4]. That collapse—documented across several reports—served as a tangible public outcome even as investigators declined to bring charges [5].
5. Competing narratives, political context and unanswered questions
Coverage of these investigations is entangled with partisan and theological disputes: some defenders emphasize the absence of indictments and point to continued ministry activity, best‑selling books and political appointments as vindication [12], while critics highlight audit details and family compensation as evidence of systemic problems in prosperity‑gospel ministries [6] [1]. Reporting also shows variation in dates, figures and emphasis across sources, and the public record leaves unresolved questions about why probes produced limited legal consequences despite audit findings and why cooperation with investigators was incomplete [3] [2].
6. Bottom line
Investigations into Paula White’s ministries revealed significant financial irregularities on paper—large receipts, high personal and family compensation, property and luxury expenditures—and spurred congressional and IRS scrutiny, but those investigations, according to available reporting, closed without criminal charges; the most concrete public outcome was institutional collapse and bankruptcy of Without Walls, not a prosecutorial finding [1] [2] [5].