Former billionaire Samuel Wyly’s Dallas church is taking on the might of the U.S. government for a some of the businessman’s remaining fortune, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Wyly, who filed for bankruptcy after losing a fraud lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, owes $20,000 to the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, under a 2010 pledge to donate $100,000 over five years, the religious organization said in a Nov. 14 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas. The church, which says it needs the money to finish a building restoration project, argues in the filing that the SEC and the Internal Revenue Service, which seek the most money from Wyly, are trying to silence smaller creditors that can’t match the government’s “unlimited” legal resources.
