Miami retiree alleges 3ABN executives misled him into signing away 400 acres in the Bahamas that had been in his family for four generations
Charitable Misgivings Curated Content

Nonprofit Christian Ministry: Property Disputes & Scandals

Published on the Miami Herald
By Alva James Johnson, September 27TH, 2024

David Lawrence Adderley, 86, alleges 3ABN executives misled him into signing away some 400 acres in the Bahamas that had been in his family for four generations.

The dispute has pitted Adderley and his family against a global televangelical network, stoked the suspicions of Bahamians wary of foreigners stripping locals of generational property, and raised questions about the tactics used by an independent, nonprofit Christian ministry with close ties to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a denomination with deep and growing roots in the Caribbean.

3ABN obtained the real estate through an irrevocable trust agreement David Adderley signed in 2011 and a lawsuit settlement he agreed to in 2020. Questions remain about whether Adderley relatives in The Bahamas have a claim to the property, a dispute now pending in the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

The land dispute between Three Angels Broadcasting Network and a family in Miami and The Bahamas is the latest controversy to rock the global television ministry over the years. Danny Shelton, a singer-songwriter who co-founded the network 40 years ago, has been at the center of most of these conflicts.

Requests for interviews with Shelton and other 3ABN leaders were referred to Minnesota attorney M. Gregory Simpson, who replied to emailed questions. Simpson denied all allegations against the network, saying 3ABN did not mislead David Adderley or mistreat the family in The Bahamas.