TV evangelists in feud over 'private jets and a motor home for dogs'

America's "first family" of television evangelism is being torn apart in a bitter legal feud which includes allegations of lavish spending on private jets, mansions and a $100,000 motor home for pet dogs.

Paul Crouch, 77, and wife Jan, 73, run the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which delivers the Christian message to every continent except Antarctica 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It bills itself as "the world's largest religious network and America's most watched faith channel".

The network broadcasts "prosperity gospel" programming, which promises that believers will be materially rewarded, and raked in $92 million (£58 million) in donations in 2010.

During a recent "praise-a-thon", one preacher asked viewers to shout "Fear not" three times, count down from 10, and then rush to the phone with donations.

The couple's granddaughter Brittany Koper, 26, has now filed court papers claiming she was sacked after discovering "illegal financial schemes" adding up to tens of millions of dollars.

Mrs Koper claims she was made to turn over her house, life insurance policy, car, furniture and jewellery to the organisation as "an act of Christian contrition" when she complained about alleged financial misdeeds.

A legal claim from another relative, Joseph McVeigh, alleged that TBN obtained a $50 million jet through a "sham loan", owned another $8 million jet for Jan Crouch's personal use, and had 13 homes for the Crouch family across the United States. He claimed that a $100,000 recreational vehicle was for the use of Jan Crouch's dogs.

The Crouches founded the network in 1973 with fellow "televangelists" Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. The Bakkers left two years later to start their own ministry.

TBN shows Christian-themed news, documentaries, films, talk shows and sermons. It owns seven other television networks.

In addition to its headquarters in Orange County, California, it has an estate outside Nashville called Trinity Music City USA, and a Christian amusement park in Florida called Holy Land Experience.

Last year Mrs Koper's father, Paul Crouch Jr, resigned as vice-president of the network. Mrs Koper took over as chief financial officer in July.

She claims to have found that directors, members of her own family, were acting illegally. She sent a memo to the board but was sacked within days, according to her lawyer.

Colby M May, a lawyer for TBN, rejected suggestions of family turmoil and financial wrongdoing. He claimed Mrs Koper and her husband had stolen from the network and that the legal claims were "completely contrived".

He said: "They're attempting to create a diversion and to create as much public spectacle as they can in the vain hope that this will all get resolved, and that's simply not going to happen."

He said the Crouches travelled by private jet because they have received "scores of death threats, more than the president of the United States".

Their ministry keeps large amounts of cash in reserve because incurring debt goes against the Biblical instruction to "owe no man any thing", he said.