- LOS ANGELES: A Los Angeles-based spiritual organization whose followers include Madonna and other celebrities is the focus of a federal tax evasion probe.
The Los Angeles Times reports Thursday that the Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether nonprofit funds from the Kabbalah Center’s $260 million in assets were used as a source of funds by the family that runs it.
For more than 40 years, the Berg family has controlled the spiritual group that preaches a little-known strain of Jewish mysticism.
The Bergs and the Kabbalah Center are named in subpoenas as a subject of a grand jury probe alongside Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity.
The charities say they are cooperating with the New York-based investigation.
Madonna abandoned plans to build a girls school in Malawi earlier this year because of logistical problems.