Weeks after a police report and before the guru’s arrest, the Church of the International Society of Divine Love deeded its 211-acre Texas ashram into a new trust. The estate today is worth about $22.3 million and owes nothing.
CONFIRMEDThe February 5, 2008 Special Warranty Deed and the current Hays and Los Angeles county parcel records.INFERENCEThe timing reading: title moved into trust as the criminal threat appeared.
On February 5, 2008, the Church of the International Society of Divine Love signed a Special Warranty Deed. It transferred the Texas ashram to the JKP Temple Trust. Hays County recorded the instrument as Document 80013282, Volume 3390, Page 665. The signature landed weeks after a police report named the church’s guru. It landed before his arrest. The property changed hands in the window between the report and the arrest.
The ashram covers roughly 211 acres. In 2008 the title did not stay whole. The estate was partitioned into two entities. One was the JKP Temple Trust. The other was JKP Foundation Inc. The foundation was not born in the moment. It had been chartered ten weeks earlier. Peter Spiegel signed as its president. By the time the deed moved the land, the structures set to receive it were already standing.
The signature landed weeks after the police report and before the arrest.
One property now answered to two names. The split was not even. The JKP Temple Trust took the three largest parcels. JKP Foundation Inc took the three smallest. No parcel the foundation holds is worth as much as the smallest the trust holds. The pattern is plain. The land moved into trust as the guru’s criminal exposure took shape. The partition set a shape the county roll still shows today.
The ashram sits at 400 Barsana Road in Austin. Hays County assesses it as six parcels. Together they carry about $22.3 million in value. Every parcel carries $0 in taxable value. The religious exemption is total. Three parcels sit under the JKP Temple Trust. Three sit under JKP Foundation Inc. The county roll separates the holders and exempts them the same. The record below shows the split.
The taxable line is the tell. The county values the ashram at about $22.3 million. The taxable figure reads $0. A $22.3 million estate returns no property tax to Hays County. The exemption covers all six parcels, the trust’s and the foundation’s alike. The trust and the foundation hold the land, and the roll asks nothing of them. Eighteen years on, the split still stands.
The church holds a second temple, and it took shape the same year. Radha Krishna Dham stands at 5530 Donna Avenue in Tarzana. Los Angeles County lists it as AIN 2163-021-032. The parcel carries a religious exemption. The county assesses it near $4.0 million. It was assembled in 2008 from a single-family lot first platted in 1947. As the Texas title moved into trust, the California parcel took its current form. Across two states, both temples sit under religious exemption, and both carry nothing on the tax line.
The sequence runs one way. A police report. A deed. An arrest. Afterward, a trust and a foundation held about $22.3 million of Texas ground and a $4.0 million temple in California. On the Hays County roll, the estate owes nothing.
In fairness. Religious organizations routinely hold real estate through trusts and affiliated foundations, and religious exemptions are lawful and common. The Hays County and Los Angeles County records fix the dates and the named holders. They do not state a motive for the timing.
Sources. Hays County Special Warranty Deed, Document 80013282, Volume 3390, Page 665 (February 5, 2008); Hays County parcel assessments, 400 Barsana Road, Austin; Los Angeles County Assessor, AIN 2163-021-032, 5530 Donna Avenue, Tarzana; JKP Foundation Inc corporate charter.
The JKP Map is independent reporting and analysis on a matter of public concern. The only criminal conviction referenced is that of Prakashanand Saraswati; every other person named is presumed to have acted lawfully, and nothing here is a finding of anyone else’s guilt or civil liability. Victim identities, home addresses, and confidential-source identities are withheld.