Following the conviction and imprisonment of Scientologist Ivan Gaspari in a Swiss court last week, another Swiss Scientologist named Luciano Vaccani was convicted and incarcerated this week. We covered the Ivan Gaspari case, which involves Trish Duggan, in our previous article. This story has now turned into a larger investigation by the Scientology Money Project.

Tony Ortega broke the story on the Gaspari case and Trish Duggan. Briefly, Ivan Gaspari is an experienced steel trader in the Lugano region of Southern Switzerland which is a hub of steel trading. Trish Duggan loaned Gaspari $10 million to create a new steel trading company called Ivancore. Trish did this at a remove and had her personal money manager Osman Ozsan, who is also a Scientologist, handle the loan. Gaspari used the $10 million to secure an additional line of credit for $9 million.

Ivan Gaspari was being handled during this period by Tyler Pirak, a fundraiser for the International Association of Scientologists (IAS). Tyler Pirak manipulated Gaspari to donate over $7 million USD to the IAS. This money was from the loan made by Trish Duggan. This had the effect of Ivancore losing money. As a consequence, Trish Duggan had her attorney and fellow Scientologist Steve Hayes file criminal charges against Gaspari, this in direct contradiction to L. Ron Hubbard’s policy that no Scientologist may report another to the authorities. Hubbard deemed this a high crime.

Steven Hayes testified at Gaspari’s trial that the money was intended for investment in Ivancore and not for donations to the IAS. However, the IAS fundraiser Tyler Pirak would have known this and nevertheless acted to secure the funds as a donations. The fraud, it seems, is on the part of the IAS. Therefore, one of the questions becomes this: Why was Tyler Pirak not criminally charged for his actions in diverting funds he knew came from Trish Duggan and were intended for business use? Indeed, did Pirak get into any trouble whatsoever with Scientology for his actions?

Given that Trish Duggan and her ex-husband Bob Duggan have donated over $400 million to Scientology, why would Scientology allow IAS fundraiser Tyler Pirak to have engaged in the predatory targeting of Trish Duggan’s $10 million investment into Ivancore? This seems to be bad faith at best and criminal at worst. Trish Duggan lost $10 million to her own Church. 

Tyler Pirak’s actions reek of the Chase Wave credit card fraud scandal that rocked the Church of Scientology. The Chave Wave involved Scientology fundraisers and salespeople targeting older people. By using their knowledge of credit cards and timing, these predators would sign up older people for multiple credit cards in a very short period of time. Lines of credit on multiple cards totaling $75,000 USD, or more, would be obtained. The cards were then immediately maxed out and the monies “donated” to Scientology.

The scheme was called the “Chase Wave” as the credit cards came primarily from Chase Bank. The US Navy Credit Union was also exploited by Scientology’s professional Sea Org predators in this scandal. 

Luciano Vaccani, 64, is an OTVIII who has served for 30 years as a fiduciary, trustee, and CPA for Scientologist-owned companies in Southern Switzerland and Italy. Vaccani is in a position to covertly report on the financials of his clients to Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs and the IAS. This would allow the IAS and its fundraisers — who are called “registrars” — to target a Scientologist business owner whose income has increased or may have come into a windfall on a big deal.

Luciano Vaccani was a trustee for Gaspari’s company Ivancore and knew the financial details of the company. Vaccani also owned his own company. Vaccani was just convicted in the Swiss criminal court for his involvement in Gaspari’s case.

Tyler Pirak would have likely had knowledge of Gaspari’s preclear folders and financial data. This information would give Pirak a predator’s advantage in targeting Gaspari to convince him to “donate” the proceeds of a business loan to the IAS. The stunning depravity of Scientology’s financial predation of its own members is once again revealed in the Gaspari case.

It is already known from former Scientology executives that the Cult’s notorious Office of Special Affairs culls preclear folders for purposes of controlling and manipulating individual Scientologists. These preclear folders are supposed to be confidential, but in the Dieckman case it was established that over 100 Sea Org members in various positions have access to these folders. On this basis, we can conclude that Tyler Pirak and Luciano Vaccani had full access to Gaspari’s financials and preclear folders. 

Luciano Vaccani also served as the president of the Scientology Mission of Lugano, Switzerland in the past. An excerpt on Vaccani’s conviction from journalist Federico Storni’s article in Corriere Del Ticino (parentheses ours): 

…The trustee (Luciano Vaccani), a 64-year-old Swiss citizen residing in the Lugano area, defended by his trusted lawyer Letizia Vezzoni, was convicted of aggravated dishonest administration, money laundering and contravention of the COVID-19 Joint and Several Guarantees Act. He was essentially accused – and he acknowledged – of having issued invoices for 7.3 million euros from the company of which he was the sole director to another attributable to the trader (Ivan Gaspari), in exchange for payments of only 700,000 euros. In his role, he must therefore have realized that the trader would never be able to repay them. Furthermore, some transfers were made directly to the trader’s American accounts and to “foreign accounts in the name of entities connected to the Church of Scientology” (hence the accusation of money laundering). Furthermore, some of them came from a COVID credit, therefore used outside its purposes (and to date “only partially repaid”)….

Luciano Vaccani’s name did not appear in Federico Storni’s article as anonymity in criminal matters is required in media reporting per Swiss law. We obtained this information from our sources. 

Based upon Storni’s reporting, our initial impression is that the 7.3 million euros in fake invoices Vaccani sent to Gaspari were meant to paper over the $7.3 million euros Ivan Gaspari donated to the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) due to the incessant badgering and machinations of IAS registrar Tyler Pirak. Ours is an tentative opinion we are investigating. Tyler Pirak’s sister Brea Romero also appears to be involved in this matter and we will be posting an email in our next story.

Exclusive: Our reporting on the IAS as David Miscavige’s unregulated multibillion dollar slush fund.

Federico Storni included these details about Luciano Vaccani in his reporting:

…the person on trial had confessed and there was an agreement between the parties regarding the sentence: three years, of which six months to be served. An agreement that was “ratified” today by the Criminal Assize Court presided over by Judge Amos Pagnamenta…

…the man convicted today is also part of a rather restricted circle within the movement. For several years now he has in fact reached the pinnacle of the spiritual path within Scientology, the so-called OT8 level, and in the past he was among other things the president of the Lugano mission. By profession (until a few months ago) a trustee accountant, the trader had said of him last week that «he manages the companies of many Scientology members in Ticino and Italy». He certainly managed one of his own, and that is why he was in the courtroom today…

Scientology covered up Danny Masterson’s drugging and raping of numerous female Scientologists for decades in adherence to Hubbard’s policy. However, the very second money was allegedly taken from the ultra-wealthy Trish Duggan, then the rules changed and criminal charges were filed by Duggan’s attorney Steven Hayes.

There is far more to this story and it involves, as we mentioned, the IAS registrar Tyler Pirak and Trish Duggan’s money manager Osman Ozsan, the owner of the Deuterium Capital Management companies which are located in Clearwater, London, the Cayman Islands, and Ireland. Deuterium Capital Management in Clearwater reports $1.1 billion AUM. Most of the money is Trish Duggan’s.

Steven Haye’s wife Paula Hayes, 68, is a CPA. She is employed as the CFO of Osman Ozsan’s Deuterium Capital Management LLC. Her LinkedIn Page shows how financially incestuous and intertwined people and businesses are inside the wealthy strata of Scientology:

Luciano Vaccani’s Scientology Service Completions: