Posted by:
Amyjo
(
)
Date: October 15, 2017 05:26PM
All of the church assets were in Smith's name only at the time of his death. He hadn't incorporated a church. The tithes and "consecrated offerings" of the earliest saints flowed directly to his pockets. And there they stayed.
He amassed a small fortune by time he died. His wife Emma was able to keep all those assets when Brigham Young sued her for the estate. The court ruled in her favor because she was Smith's legal widow. His property passed to her through I suppose what was an intestate estate.
As for currency there was a time Smith tried to form his own bank and currency system. That failed obviously.
There is a fairly new book out about Smith's counterfeiting money - the author, Kathleen Kimball Melanakos is presenting that in a talk at the ExMormon Conference this coming weekend.
"The inner-circle secret counterfeiting affected the fate of the Smith brothers and the Mormon migration to Utah. Secret Combinations: Evidence of Early Mormon Counterfeiting 1800-1847" is available on Amazon, through Utah Lighthouse Ministry (utlm.org), Benchmark Books, and mormoncounterfeiting.com. An EBook PDF version is available on the website.
This is the first book documenting this aspect of Mormon history. It contains over 1,400 footnotes and 100 photos and illustrations.
Book Synopsis: Using original documents and on-site research in Vermont, New York, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois and Utah, this book begins with figures in 18th- and 19th-century America who developed secret networks to promote counterfeiting and other illegal schemes and often used religion as a cover.
Kathleen states, "The historical record indicates how Joseph Smith, Sr., father of the Mormon Church founder, was involved in counterfeiting and how this involvement was passed on to Joseph Smith, Jr. and was practiced by Mormon leaders throughout the development and migration of the early church."
https://www.charismanews.com/us/60354-new-expose-on-mormon-church-claims-joseph-smith-ran-a-counterfeiting-ring