Church of Scientology

The Nation of Islam: Updates on Money, Sexual Abuse, Jesus, and L. Ron Hubbard

This video of Mr. Farrakhan opens with his indignant declaration that he “didn’t get a dime from Dianetics or Scientology.” In fact, he recalls, the Nation of Islam had to spend a lot of money to buy the books for Dianetics.

Mr. Farrakhan then goes on to defend Dianetics by arguing that it will help members of the Nation of Islam overcome the trauma of sexual abuse. However, what Mr. Farrakhan ignores is that the Church of Scientology covers up rape, sexual abuse, and even pedophilia.

This begs the question: Why is Mr. Farrakhan looking for help with sexual abuse from a group that covers up sexual abuse? Mr. Farrakhan should demand that the Church of Scientology first cleanse its own house and expel all known rapists, child molesters, and those who have committed spousal abuse or domestic battery. The Minister should demand that Scientology stop covering up these crimes and sheltering the criminals simply because they are Scientologists.

Where Mr. Farrakhan is to be commended is that he, unlike the Church of Scientology and the Catholic Church, acknowledges that sexual molestation exists as a problem. Pope Francis, to his disgrace, has gone the way of John Paul II in attempting to cover up and protect pedophile priests. The recently published paper entitled The Testimony by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has served to intensify the pressure on Pope Francis by calling for him to resign. Archbishop Viganò claims that Pope Francis knew about and covered up the sexual crimes that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick perpetrated upon his subordinates and seminarians.

By contrast, Mr. Farrakhan has acknowledged that spousal abuse and sexual abuse exist. Accordingly, he incorporated both into the pledge that Black Men signed at his now legendary 1995 Million Man March. This section of the pledge reads:

I pledge from this day forward I will never abuse my wife by striking her, disrespecting her, for she is the mother of my children and the producer of my future.

I pledge that from this day forward I will never engage in the abuse of children, little boys or little girls for sexual gratification. For I will let them grow in peace to be strong men and women for the future of our people.

Again, we ask the question: Given the Nation of Islam’s decades-long willingness to forthrightly acknowledge the problem of sexual abuse, why does Mr. Farrakhan turn for help to a group that will neither acknowledge the problem nor punish the perpetrators?

WHITE JESUS

Even as Mr. Farrakhan warns the Nation of Islam that they were given a white Jesus to keep them enslaved, he leads the Nation to uncritically embrace and accept a white Savior named L. Ron Hubbard. NOI Western Regional Representative Tony Muhammad has called Hubbard, “an angelic messenger sent from God.”

Scientology leads to slavery. That is how the system is designed. L. Ron Hubbard wrote in his Admissions:

All men shall be my slaves.
All women shall submit to my charms.
All mankind shall grovel at my feet.

— Scroll down to the bottom of this page to read the Admissions of L. Ron Hubbard–

The Nation of Islam is focused on the 400 years of slavery, brutality, and injustice Black people in North America have suffered at the hands of the White man. And yet it seems Mr. Farrakhan is taking the Nation back into the bondage of Egypt when he submits the Nation to L. Ron Hubbard, the white man whose stated Magickal goal was to make all men his slaves.

We wonder if Mr. Farrakhan is cognizant of the Master Race ideology at the heart of Scientology or if he is simply dazzled by the auditing experience? Many public Scientologists such as Mr. Farrakhan are so dazzled by auditing and the wins they get from auditing that they just do not care to know what Scientology actually is at its core. Most Scientologists are not aware of the deliberately calculated and methodical ways in which the Church of Scientology traps them legally, psychologically, and spiritually.

Mr. Farrakhan publicly stated that any member of the Nation of Islam who refused to do Dianetics would never have a place of leadership in the Nation. Instead, he said, “they will be thanked for their labors and asked to step aside.” This is called an “enforced reality” in Scientology and that is what Mr. Farrakhan is doing: He is enforcing his reality upon others. In doing so, he is taking away their self-determinism. To take away the self-determinism of another unless they comply with your demands made under threat or duress is itself a form of slavery.

In the video, Mr. Farrakhan repeats his long-standing rationale that because Scientology is useful and can help the Nation of Islam, all criticisms of Scientology should be ignored. Farrakhan says, “They’ve beaten the hell out of Scientology now so everybody wanna run away. Farrakhan not that kind of man.” Farrakhan’s comment that “everybody wanna run away” is quite revealing. What group of persons is the everybody who wants to run away because of Scientology’s reputation? It appears there are cracks in the Nation of Islam over Scientology.

The Church of Scientology has been exposed and called to account due to its inhumanity; greed; lies; Fair Game attacks on former members, journalists, and critics; breaking up families by Disconnection; and its cynical exploitation of Sea Org members — and this includes the use of child labor in the Sea Org. If Mr. Farrakhan willingly chooses to ignore the evil, malice, abuses, greed, and lies at the heart of Scientology then that’s all on him. Farrakhan can “not is it” all he wants, but his not-isness doesn’t change reality.

“Not-isness” is a Scientology word for denial. To “not is” something is to pretend it doesn’t exist or deny its existence because you can’t confront it. Our critique of Mr. Farrakhan is that he wants the best of what Scientology has to offer and will “not is” the rest.

Many Scientologists have used this approach and it typically ends in failure when Scientology’s brutality suddenly and utterly destroys one’s ability to remain in a state of denial. It is an overwhelming experience that shatters all hopes and dreams. There is usually a triggering event in which all of the years or decades of repressed and pent up frustration, anger, and pretending break the dam and it all floods into full awareness. This necessary crisis is one way out. The easy way is to just leave Scientology.

TO WHOM DOES THE MONEY TRAIL LEAD?

Mr. Farrakhan specifically rebuts the oft-heard claim that he personally makes money from Dianetics and Scientology. The basis of his denial refers to the fact that the Church of Scientology pays a 10% commission to its salespeople — who are called Field Staff Ministers (FSM’s) or registrars — whenever they sell Scientology goods and services to others.

This raises the obvious question: Given the fact that the Church of Scientology is a business based solely upon the payment of money in exchange for overpriced goods and services, who then is paid commissions on the monies generated by sales to the Nation of Islam? While we welcome any information, here is our short list of three obvious candidates:

Tony Muhammad — Nation of Islam
Jim Mathers — Scientologist
Alfreddie Johnson — Scientologist

L-R: Tony Muhammad, Jim Mathers, Alfreddie Johnson

Jim Mathers is a white Scientologist who is seemingly omnipresent at Nation of Islam events related to Scientology. Mathers’ presence at NOI events since the beginning of the Nation’s involvement with the Church of Scientology has been left completely unexplained. Aside from Jim Mathers, white Scientologists are seldom ever seen at NOI events.

Mathers is frequently photographed in the company of Tony Muhammad and Alfreddie Johnson. Does Jim Mathers make money as an FSM to the Nation of Islam? Or does he serve another purpose?

Do Tony Muhammad and Alfreddie Johnson make money as FSM’s to the Nation of Islam? Nation of Islam members have never been told who gets the 10% Scientology commissions. This lack of financial transparency naturally creates questions.

Mathers recently donned the garb of a clergyman to appear at the Ebony Awakening event held in the ballroom of Scientology’s Fort Harrison Hotel located at Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. The available literature gives no explanation for his appearance at the event which was largely attended by members of the Nation of Islam who are also Scientologists.

WE KNOW WHERE SOME OF THE MONEY DIDN’T GO

When Scientologist Alfreddie Johnson brought Nation of Islam Western Representative Tony Muhammad into Scientology, there was one problem: Tony Muhammad didn’t have the money to begin his Bridge.

Word went out to the Celebrity Centre that money was urgently needed to get Minister Tony Muhammad onto the Bridge. Leah Remini, who was then still in the Church, stepped up and loaned Minister Tony a good amount of money to begin his Bridge.

Tony Muhammad has never paid Leah back, this despite the strict Islamic teaching that a Muslim may not enter Paradise until all of his or her debts are paid:

Muhammad ibn Jahsh said: ‘We were sitting with the Messenger of Allaah (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam) when he raised his head towards the sky, then he put his palm on his forehead and said: “Subhaan-Allaah! What a strict issue has been revealed to me!” We remained silent and were afraid. The following morning I asked him,

“O Messenger of Allaah, what is this strict issue that has been revealed?” He said, “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if a man were killed in battle for the sake of Allaah, then brought back to life, then killed and brought back to life again, then killed, and he owed a debt, he would not enter Paradise until his debt was paid off.” (Hasan-al-Nasaa’i).

When will Minister Tony Muhammad correct the stain upon his honor as a Muslim by repaying this debt? Or has Minister Tony embraced Scientology to the extent that debts to SP’s do not have to be repaid? This is how the Church of Scientology actually views the matter.

Leah publicly chided Minister Tony about his unpaid debt as these two tweets show:

THE TRUE HISTORY OF JESUS BY THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD

Mr. Farrakhan is quite correct in stating that Jesus was not white. One widely-held opinion is that Jesus was most likely an olive-skinned, black-haired, Jewish Palestinian. Nevertheless, Jesus is rendered in white Christian art as a white man. The Mormons, for example, depict a clearly out-of-place white Jesus preaching in Mesoamerica:

In his 1959 sermon The True History of Jesus, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that Jesus was a black man. The question of Jesus’ color has therefore been long established in the Nation of Islam:

Below is a PDF transcript version of The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame.

The True History of Jesus as Taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

The Affirmations of L. Ron Hubbard are next. Again, please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame:

LRH.Admissions

All Scientologists Must Show Their IAS Card At Events!

As the IAS letter (scroll down for the full text) makes clear, only card-carrying IAS members will now be allowed into Scientology events. David Miscavige, it seems, has become increasingly paranoid that spies, critics, or even journalists will get into Scientology events.

For new Scientology watchers, here are specific details about Scientology’s unregulated slush fund aka the IAS.

Here is the PDF. Note: Please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame.

IAS membership 2018_Redacted

Why Colombia’s military was fertile territory for Scientology — and one general’s stunning role

Retired Colombian Police General Carlos Ramiro Mena Bravo presented an unauthorized medal to David Miscavige. Outraged has ensued in Colombia over giving an American cult leader an undeserved and unauthorized medal. An investigation of this insult to Colombia in underway by the authorities.

(Note: This piece was first published on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker on August 23, 2018. It is republished here for archival purposes. We add additional research notes to our article after the text of the Underground Bunker piece. Scroll down for the additional research notes.)

While things have been exploding over Scientology in Colombia, our man in Los Angeles, Jeffrey Augustine, has been looking into the relationship between David Miscavige’s organization and that South American country, looking for clues to how things got to their present mess. We think he’s turned up some fascinating stuff…

Over the last three weeks, the Colombian press has been diving into Scientology’s archives and finding volumes of evidence about Scientology’s activities there. The press has focused on comedian Andrés López, who has been promoting Scientology in Colombia since at least 2004. And in 2008, Scientology’s Guillermo Smythe, who works PR on the ship Freewinds, apparently first made contact with Colombian national police Colonel Ricardo Prado, who would go on to become such a promoter of Scientology front groups he would be awarded Scientology’s highest honor, the “Freedom Medal.”

But what we’re hearing less about than Scientology’s activities are the conditions in Colombia that made it such fertile ground for Scientology and its “human rights” front groups. In 2011, the Colombian government was rocked by revelations of extrajudicial killings conducted by the Army during the period 2002-2010. These killings occurred during the Army’s war against FARC guerillas, and they consisted of civilians being murdered by the Army and then falsely identified as guerillas in order to increase body counts. The victims were typically poor, unemployed, handicapped, or otherwise disadvantaged young men in remote villages. These people were killed and then dressed in guerilla combat fatigues and identified as terrorists. The nightmarish military euphemism “False Positives” was later used to minimize the atrocities. A recent study by Omar Rojas Bolaños and Fabian Leonardo Benavides argues that as many as 10,000 civilians were the victims of extrajudicial killings. The Colombian military has resisted efforts to bring the generals and political leaders responsible for the extrajudicial killings to justice. Several military officers who attempted to expose the killings were murdered. A 2015 article in the Los Angeles Times noted…

Ramiro Orjuela, a Bogota-based human rights attorney who helped research the HRW report, said the slow pace of prosecutions of army leadership is because of a “lack of political will. … This is a very precise demonstration of how the attorney general’s office remains fearful of the army leadership, who are extremely powerful. Potential witnesses in these cases have been threatened and even killed.”

With that kind of shocking human rights record in Colombia, Scientology may have seen an opportunity — similar to the way Scientology sees opportunities for public relations operations and recruitment at the scene of natural disasters in other parts of the world.

Sandra and Felipe Poveda are a brother and sister team and IAS Freedom Medal recipients. Sandra founded Youth for Human Rights in Colombia and her brother is its president. In a Scientology-produced video, the Povedas claim to have used Scientology’s Human Rights program to intervene in the serious matter of extrajudicial killings of civilians by the Colombian Army. As a result of their program, the Povedas say that civilian complaints against the Army dropped 96 percent.

In this series of screenshots from Scientology TV, viewers are asked to believe that Colombian soldiers were so morally deranged that they did not know that murdering civilians or wounded guerillas was wrong:

I see in this absurd Scientology narrative a cynical attempt to shift the blame for extrajudicial killings onto common soldiers who did not know right from wrong. For its part, Scientology got access to compliant soldiers for its public relations purposes. The military, meanwhile, had evidence that it was doing something about human rights in the wake of the extrajudicial killings.

Back in the US, Scientologists were led to believe that the campaign was making a difference across the entire nation of Colombia and were thereby induced to make further donations.

This same pattern has been used by Scientology with the Los Angeles Police Department and other police agencies in the US. These agencies distribute Scientology’s free anti-drug booklets and videos. In return, Scientology receives PR photos of smiling cops holding Scientology booklets. The police officers are generally photographed with local Scientologists officials. (We covered this in a previous story at the Bunker.) Just as we see photos of smiling LAPD senior command officers with Scientologists we see the same in Colombia.

For years, Scientology used Colombia as a prop until things unraveled after David Miscavige had retired General Carlos Ramiro Mena pin a medal on him at the end of this year’s “Maiden Voyage” celebration on June 23 in Barbados. Mena may have violated rules by being in uniform, and for taking the medal to Barbados. Scientology has argued that the decoration was already approved by the director of the National Police, General Jorge Nieto, and that it took place in Barbados because Miscavige couldn’t pick it up in Colombia.

But we’ve learned something new about Mena that puts his participation in a new light.

Mena was a powerful official in Colombia, and according to a listing of National Police personnel, he was the Director of Criminal Investigations for Interpol in Colombia. In other words, he had access to global Interpol databases while he was associated with the Church of Scientology.

General Mena personally signed extradition orders for Colombian citizens to be sent to the United States. Here, for example, is an extradition order he signed, handing over a suspect to the DEA…

Longtime Scientology watchers will no doubt understand why this grabbed our attention. Scientology has long been obsessed with Interpol. L. Ron Hubbard was consumed with paranoia about what Interpol was saying to law enforcement agencies around the world about him. His Guardian’s Office made Interpol a key target during its “Snow White Program” in the 1970s, and Scientology commissioned writer Omar Garrison to pen a 1976 book attacking the agency, The Secret World of Interpol.

It’s fascinating to think that Miscavige had influence with a Colombian general who had access to Interpol’s files — and enough influence that the general would risk his retirement to pin a medal on Miscavige.

Yesterday, we learned from the Bunker’s correspondent in Bogotá that Colombia’s senate is showing a united front to have Scientology seriously investigated. We can only hope they go down many different avenues, including the things Gen. Mena might have been doing for Miscavige that we don’t know about. Yet.

— Jeffrey Augustine

Additional Research Notes:

1. As the Inspector General of the Colombian National Police, General Mena also participated in both US military and NATO training events. This screenshot is from a webpage on the Colombian National Army’s official website:

2. General Mena has significant connections in the Colombian government, Interpol, NATO, and the US military. For Scientology to have such a powerful connection raises many disturbing questions.

3. We did a guest piece on the Underground Bunker which showed that the Dianetics Center in Medellin was located right next door to the home where Pablo Escobar was shot and killed by Colombia’s elite Search Bloc troops in 1993. We linked to a tourist video on YouTube which showed the Mission. We note that shortly after our story was published the entire YouTube channel where the video was located was taken down for violating terms of service. This was strange as it was an old account with little traffic. Perhaps it was inconvenient for David Miscavige to have the Colombian public reminded that he had a Dianetics Center next to the Pablo Escobar death house in Medellin even as he was receiving a dubious and unauthorized medal from the retired Colombian National Police General Mena.

The Dianetics Center in Medellin located in Medellin

The Pablo Escobar Death House. The Dianetics volcano banner can be seen next door to the right

4. I have been following the story of the extrajudicial killings in Colombia for many years. What I see in the Scientology component of the killings is essentially a form of collusion between the Colombian military leaders and the Church of Scientology to shift the blame for extrajudicial killings onto common soldiers, i.e. an attempt to say that no one in particular really did the killings.

The Poveda’s scripted narrative in their Scientology TV video is so insulting as to be beyond contempt. Their video is what led me to my thesis that the Poveda’s are playing ball with the Army on behalf of Scientology. Three screenshots of Felipe Poveda show him to have a ghoulish glee as he describes the killings. His smile is strange:

The Colombian military has painted a picture of a pervasive lack of training in which inexperienced soldiers, literally raw young recruits with AR-15’s, were fighting hardened FARC guerillas. So naturally there was going to be some False Positives. However, the military protests, there were no organized death squads, no guerra sucia as happened in Argentina. These are not “disappeared ones” they are simply False Positives — and this due to a lack of training combined with the extreme problems of positive visual identification in jungle warfare.

Add the fog of war to a lack of Human Rights training and there were bound to be problems: Shoot first and ask questions later. This simplistic narrative allows the Scientology component of Human Rights education to prove that the Army is bringing in an outside religious group to teach the soldiers respect for human life.

Over against this, there in an intense pushback from the Army on any prosecutions. IMO, this is a long game for the Colombian Army in which it has to distance itself by a least a decade from the killings which ended in 2010. One way to shift the narrative from “what happened” to “what we’re doing about it” is to shift the focus onto Human Rights education provided by Scientology. Yet this begs the question: Why doesn’t the Colombian Army or Police bring in Colombian experts and teachers on Human Rights? Why do they need an American Cult to do this work?

While the current focus in Colombia is one of whether or not tax dollars were spent on Scientology, I would like Senator Cepeda look at the false narrative Scientology helped the military and the police create.

A W Radio piece published yesterday shows General Alberto Sepúlveda praising Sandra Poveda. Here is a link to the article: http://www.wradio.com.co/no…

Here is a translation:

…General Alberto Sepúlveda was at the main table of this event and even had a conference in which he said that Sandra Poveda, Scientologist and director of the NGO to which the agreement in Colombia was terminated, is the “guardian angel” of the Army in the field of human rights.

“I want to confess that with Dr. Sandra Poveda here present, who is our guardian angel in Colombia on these human rights issues, human rights matter in the National Army (…) We have a series of documents, directives, clues so that our Soldiers learn to do what human rights are(…) and it has been in the hands of “partners” as Young People for Human Rights that we have managed to grow on this issue deeply. Well, you see some of the training for our soldiers there. We have trained them with thousands of soldiers, officers and non-commissioned officers in our jungles, “said General Sepúlveda.

The praise of the leaders of Scientology towards General Sepulveda did not remain there, Fabio Amicarelli, director of humanitarian programs of the Church of Scientology, congratulated General Alberto Sepúlveda for the success of the Army and Scientology, working together.

By training thousands of soldiers, there is a dilution of the killings and a re-contextualization of the killings as a lack of training spread across many years.

That an Army official ascribes “guardian angel” status to Scientologist Sandra Poveda is ridiculous. Again, is there no one in the Colombian military that can do this work? Or are certain officers in the Colombian military in the pocket of Scientology? General Sepulveda is absurd. He seems to be reciting a script written for him by Scientology. IMO, such ridiculously effusive praise betrays a hidden agenda.

*****
Scientology made it very easy to do. What Scientology offered the Colombian military and police was a “plug and play” curriculum of free and readily available booklets and videos on Human Rights. All the military and police needed to do was hand them out and take PR photos to show they were doing something about human rights in response to the extrajudicial killings. This was of course window dressing given the fact that no high-ranking Colombian officers or political leaders have ever been convicted in the killings. In exchange for its literature and videos, Scientology received a great deal of PR which it then used for internal fundraising.

5. Real human rights groups such as Amnesty International would never have gotten involved in this on terms dictated by the Colombian Army. In fact, just last month on July 9, 2018 Amnesty International denounced Colombia’s human rights violations and the continuing murders of human rights activists:

This gives us another avenue of investigation: Ask Amnesty International what it thinks of Scientology’s cooperation with the Colombia military and police. We intend to pursue this matter.

This Amnesty International headline would seem to put the lie to Scientology’s claim to be Human Rights champions in Colombia. If anything, it makes Scientology look like the Army’s PR unit.

6. The “peace settlement” between the Colombian government and FARC was constructed in such a way that required the Colombian Congress to approve a highly controversial law in which the top people on both sides would held harmless from prosecution:

On 28 December, Congress approved a law to provide amnesties or pardons
to FARC combatants and the waiving of criminal prosecutions for security force personnel not under investigation for or convicted of crimes under international law. Those who had served at least five years in prison for crimes under international law will, under certain circumstances, be conditionally released. Ambiguities in the law could result in many human rights abusers evading justice.

ref: http://www.refworld.org/doc…

The war between Colombia and FARC was bankrupting the nation. One figure showed that the Colombian government had to spend $3.9 million USD per day. The costs over two decades was around $12 billion USD. Another part of the damage was the reputation of the Army and the Police for the extrajudicial killings.

The missing links I’m exploring are those between the Colombian Army, the Police, and Scientology. The Colombian military and police needed a solution, they needed an outside party who would cooperate in what is, imo, obviously a false PR narrative. I say this because, as noted, Amnesty International and other real Human Rights groups would not participate in this Colombian Army-Police PR show.

General Bravo is one of the Shadowmen. He was, after all, the third highest ranking police official in Colombia. He has ties to NATO and the US Army as well.

I have a feeling that this is a big and deep rabbit hole which has been located and this story is just beginning. We need a Robert Mueller here in America to investigate Scientology and Columbia. It may be that Scientology is violating US State Department rules by working with a foreign power in the manner that it is.

Scientology Money in a Mormon Bank: More of the Secret Relationship Exposed

Tony Ortega today posted a most interesting article on Efrem Logreira, the 75 year old man whom the Church of Scientology clipped for $75,000 in a credit card scheme. Scientology wants to return the $75,000 to Logreira as this scam has blown up in its face. However, Mr. Logreira has been paying crippling amounts of monthly interest on the balance on the cards and therefore demands to recover interest in order to be made whole on the entire amount. Scientology does not appear interested in making Logreira whole and wants to pay only the balance on the credit cards less interest.

As we learn in Ortega’s story, Scientology’s long-time attorney Mr. Moxon presented Mr. Logreira’s counsel Graham Berry with the check shown above. This is where the Scientology Money Project is extremely interested as the check posted by Tony Ortega shows the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles Claims Verification Board to have its account with the California Bank & Trust Los Angeles Metro Branch.

California Bank & Trust Los Angeles Metro Branch is a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation, one of America’s largest banks. Founded in 1873 by Mormon leader Brigham Young, the Mormon church once owned a majority interest in Zions Bank. Even after selling its interest, CEO Harris Henry Simmons is a Mormon as are many of Zions’ employees. Several Zions employees also hold political office in Utah.

Zions is a powerful bank with deep connections to the LDS Church and, now it appears, financial ties to the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology has long had a not-so-secret backchannel relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and now we see one more element of the relationship. In a second check Ortega posted today, we see a check from Scientology’s Continental Liaison Office (CLO). The account is held in same Los Angeles Metro branch of California Bank & Trust.

A MORMON OFFICIAL DEFENDS SCIENTOLOGY

Jean Huysmans, Public Affairs Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, publicly spoke on behalf of Scientology in a video produced by the Church of Scientology. In this video, praises L. Ron Hubbard and attacks psychiatric drugs. The presumption here is that Huysmans was fully authorized to do this video by the First Presidency in Salt Lake City.

SCANDALS

Zions Bancorporation is not without its scandals. In 2011, the bank was fined $8 million dollars for violating US laws related to anti-money laundering and bank secrecy laws. FinCen cited 132 suspicious offshore wire transfers into Zions offshore entities totaling $12.3 billion. Zions was fined $8 million. As we read in the Assessment of Civil Money Penalty issued by the US Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network:

FinCEN has determined that Zions violated the BSA requirements: to establish and
implement an effective anti-money laundering (“AML”) program with respect to its casas de cambio (“CDC”) and foreign correspondent customers’ account relationships; timely file Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”); and comply with the foreign correspondent account regulation(s).

Zions’ foreign correspondent business was initially handled by its Financial Institutions Group (“FIG”), and focused on Mexico and countries within Latin America. In January 2007, the Bank restructured its correspondent banking from FIG to an International Correspondent Banking Group (“ICB”). At its height, the Bank had 54 foreign correspondent relationships that included 19 CDC accounts, 4 casas de bolsa (securities firms), 15 foreign banks-primarily from Latin America-and 3 foreign corporation customers. The services provided by the Bank to these customers included wire transfers, Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) transactions, cash letter activity processed through remote deposit capture (“RDC”) technology, and deposits.
The Bank provided wire transfers, ACH transactions, deposits, RDC services and imaging for processing cash letter instruments to its foreign correspondent customers. The Bank launched its RDC product in January 2005 and realized a significant increase in activity involving its correspondent accounts in 2006 and 2007. In 2005, the volume of transactions using RDC exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, and continued to increase into the billions of dollars in 2007.

Zions failed to implement an effective AML program for its foreign correspondent business reasonably designed to identify and timely report transactions that exhibited indicia of money laundering or other suspicious activity, considering the types of products and services offered by the Bank, the volume and scope of its business, and the nature of its customers. Zions failed to implement a program tailored to the risks inherent within its foreign correspondent business lines and geographical reach. As a result, Zions failed to timely file SARs representing billions of dollars in suspicious transactions, thus greatly diminishing the potential utility of such reports to both law
enforcement and regulatory agencies…

Internal Policies, Procedures, and Controls

Zions failed to implement an effective system of internal controls reasonably
designed to ensure compliance with the BSA and manage the risks of money laundering, in its CDC and foreign correspondent customers’ accounts. Zions lacked adequate written policies, procedures and controls reasonably designed to assess the risks of money laundering and ensure the detection and reporting of suspicious transactions with respect to its CDC and foreign correspondent customers’ accounts.

Zions Bancorporation — Assessment of Civil Money Penalty

Note: Hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the document.

ZionsAssessment

Tom Cruise and David Miscavige Have Brunch & L. Ron Hubbard Was Supposed to “Make Himself Visible” by 1999

The Church of Scientology sent this now widely-circulated photo of Tom Cruise and David Miscavige to the Los Angeles Times for its feature article on Scientology. Published December 5, 2004 both the photo and the Times caption are unintentionally hilarious:

A STAR AND HIS LEADER: Tom Cruise and David Miscavige after a brunch at Scientology’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood about a year ago.

Tom Cruise and David Miscavige send mixed signals in the photo. They want to present a sinister image of themselves as planetary-clearing, Psych-busting, bad-ass, leather-wearing Scientologists on their matching Ducati’s. However, bad-ass bikers don’t do brunch. The photo looks like a sultry urban bromance more than anything else.

In the L.A. Times article of 2004 we learn several interesting facts:

1. David Miscavige had molds made of his feet so that he could order custom made shoes:

2. Scientology acquired the old Gilman Hot Springs resort for $2.78 million in 1978. The resort became the home to Scientology’s Gold Base where the infamous “musical chairs” event occurred. This event was first reported on by Marc Headley at xenu.net. This was when Marc was writing under the screen name Blownforgood. Marc’s book Blown For Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology is a true classic.

3. The Church used the names “Scottish Highland Quietude Society” and “Western States Scientific Assn.” to purchase the Gilman Hot Springs resort. Scientology did not want anyone to know who the real buyer was. This was the same dishonest method whereby Scientology acquired its first properties in Clearwater.

4. Scientology spent “at least $45 million” on improvements Gold Base in the period 1978-2004. The LA Times article does not mention Scientology’s sniper nest and lookout station at Gold Base that was named the Eagle’s Nest. Details are in my 2014 podcast with Jackson Morehead, the former Security Chief at the Base. In this podcast Jackson covers the big fire that was caused by toilet paper being set afire, the razor wire fences, and the sniper rifles at the Base:

5. Scientology was planning on a television station as early as 2004. Scientology TV was launched March 12, 2018 — a glacial fourteen years later. The “speed of particle flow” was slow on this project.

6. Scientology spent $9.4 million to build a mansion on its Gold Base for the deceased L. Ron Hubbard. The article informs us that Ron’s mansion is named Bonnie View and has a lap pool and a movie theater. Looks like Ron wants to do laps in his pool and watch movies when he returns from Target 2.

7. David Miscavige told Sea Org members that the Bonnie View mansion needed to built quickly as L. Ron Hubbard was returning and would make himself visible within thirteen years of his 1986 death. Former Sea Org member Karen Schless Pressley, author of Escaping Scientology: An Insider’s True Story, was quoted in the LA Times 2004 on Hubbard’s mansion and David Miscavige’s claim that Hubbard would soon appear:

A teenage L. Ron Hubbard never made himself visible by 1999 as promised by Scientology leader David Miscavige.

This is hardly surprising as David Miscavige’s prophetic track record has been abysmal:

* The Ideal Orgs have not boomed Scientology or even moved the needle

* Scientology TV was dead on arrival. Scientology’s “uncorrupted communication line to the billions” is an infomercial of incredible boredom and repetition.

* The new Flag Building in Clearwater did not boom Scientology.

* Scientology did not destroy Psychiatry by the year 2000 as Miscavige predicted

Finally, Miscavige got these predictions incredibly wrong when he made them in 1992 during the 25th Anniversary of the Sea Org:

A Scientology Salesperson’s Secrets for Getting Money Fast From His Fellow Scientologists!

The Church of Scientology is wealthy because it knows how to separate people from their money with great speed — and this by using every trick in the book. David Sonenfild was an extremely successful Church of Scientology “Reg” for many years. A “Reg” is a highly trained high-pressure Scientology salesperson who will use every form of flattery, apparent concern, tricks, connivance, dissimulation, threats, promises, or whatever else is needed to part a person from their money as quickly as possible.

David did a “hat write up” of the techniques he used — scroll down to the bottom of this post for a PDF copy. In Scientology-speak a job is called a “hat.” Instead of saying “do your job!” Scientology says, “wear your hat!” Strange talk, but Scientology’s insular language is part of its core cultic construction.

This “hat write up” was intended for use in training new regges in the techniques of selling Scientology where the focus is on urgency. Scientology has always used extreme urgency, emergency, and time pressure to create a sense that some horrible disaster is lurking just around the corner unless people act right now! Time pressure is the essence of hard sales and Scientology constantly uses time pressure against its own membership.

The Sonenfield Hat Write Up begins by using the term “Body Registrar.” This is a Scientology term of art for any Non-Scientologist, i.e. you are just a body to the Church of Scientology. Hence, the job of the “Body Registrar” is to get your body into a Scientology Org and then employ specific techniques to get your money “with no added unnecessary time.” The Church of Scientology, you see, doesn’t have time to waste given the fake urgency it has created and operates under on a 24/7/365 basis.

The Church of Scientology is nothing more than a nonstop wealth extraction machine erected entirely upon a sustained, hyperventilating, and completely false sense of emergency and crisis coupled to the hope of someday attaining unspeakably glorious and exalted spiritual states of being.

Page 13 of the PDF (scroll down) is the most damning page in the entire document as it shows how Scientology’s salespeople target retirement monies; funds for children’s college education; personal and business checking accounts; savings accounts; bonds; etc. In a recent story by Tony Ortega, Scientology even used three attractive young Sea Org women to help “convince” a 75 year old man to buy some Scientology courses. Scientology then opened credit cards in the man’s name and put him $75,000 into high interest credit card debt.

Please read the document below carefully, particularly page 13 where you will see that the goal in Scientology regging is to separate a person from their money “as fast as humanely possible.” The goal is to not give a person anytime to think about the serious financial repercussions and harm they may be doing to themselves by acting in haste under Scientology’s hard pressure sales tactics.

Given the fact that Scientology treats “monies on account” as irrevocable donations, the fact is that as soon as Scientology gets a person’s money it is gone forever. As we saw with the Garcia sham arbitration, Scientology is based on malice, bad faith, and lies. Scientology will say or do anything to get money and then fight for years (or decades if needed) to keep every penny. This is why Scientology wants to get the money as fast as possible and have the person sign an agreement that their money is now irrevocably Scientology’s money. This is part of Scientology’s pattern of financial fraud and predation.

Page 13:

The PDF: Hover your mouse over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame:

David Sonenfild, Hat Writeup, Body Registrar, Cincinnati org

Scientology: No New Twitter Followers in the Past 18 Months ; Scientology TV Producing No Results!!

As the statistics on socialblade.com make clear, the Church of Scientology gained no new followers on Twitter in the period April 2018 — July 2018.

With the exception of adding about 1,800 followers in the period November 2017 — February 2018, Scientology on Twitter flatlined and has been dead since January 2017.

However, the ~1800 the Twitter followers Scientology added were all lost on July 17, 2018 when Twitter stripped Scientology of 1,882 fake followers.

Essentially, Scientology has been dead on Twitter from January 2017 through July 2018. Eighteen months of no new Twitter followers!

David Miscavige’s $100 million dollar white elephant a/k/a Scientology TV has had zero impact on social media.

Scientology Legal Cases — July 2018: Scientology Wins Garcia Sham Arbitration; Settles Forced Abortion Case in DeCrescenzo

Laura DeCrescenzo

Events in a mediation last weekend signaled that the Church of Scientology was preparing to settle with Laura DeCrescenzo in her nine year old lawsuit that detailed numerous abuses she suffered at Scientology’s hands as a Sea Org member: Forced abortion, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, and false imprisonment.

Scientology’s Religious Technology Center (RTC) was named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Scientology dictator David Miscavige exercises supreme control over Scientology from his position as Chairman of the Board RTC. DeCrescenzo’s lawsuit threatened to pierce Scientology’s corporate veils and show that Scientology is the alter ego of David Miscavige.

News of the settlement with Laura DeCrescenzo has just been published by Tony Ortega. In her long and grinding legal battle, DeCrescenzo was able to defeat Scientology’s contract called Agreement Regarding Confidential Religious Files. In this particular contract, Scientologists forever sign away all their rights to ever read, inspect, review, or own their preclear folders.

Among her other legal victories in pretrial, Laura DeCrescenzo was able to establish that over 100 people in Scientology had access to her confessional folders and there was no priest-penitent privilege. This struck another major blow against Scientology’s demonstrably false claim that pc folders are confidential. Scientology’s former members who speak out have consistently testified that their “private” pc folder data was used against them in retaliatory Scientology Fair Game attacks. Fair Game puts the lie to all claims made by Scientology that anything a former Scientologist said in session is private. L. Ron Hubbard himself sanctioned the use of pc folder data against former members who speak out.

The upcoming trial in DeCrescenzo posed enormous risks for the Church of Scientology. These risks included the setting of legal precedents that would be adverse to Scientology in all future litigation filed against it.

GARCIA

On July 17, 2018 Federal Judge James Whittemore ruled in the Church of Scientology’s favor in the sham arbitration it conducted with former Scientologists Luis and Rocio Garcia. In his ruling, Judge Whittemore’s concluded that the First Amendment prevented him from interfering in the outcome of Scientology’s arbitration procedure with the Garcia’s. To outsiders, it was abundantly clear to see that the arbitration was a complete sham.

The Garcia case was predicated on the fact that the Garcia’s had signed Scientology’s scammy “Religious Services Enrollment Application, Agreement, and General Release” contract. In this contract, the Garcia’s agreed to be bound by Scientology’s ecclesiastical rules including arbitration. According to the contract, Scientology was entitled to set all the rules in what became a one-sided farce that served to highlight the bad faith that is integral to the Church of Scientology.

We covered specifics of Scientology’s bad faith in two previous articles:

How Scientology Inc. Legally Cripples Its Own Members: The Four Unconscionable Contracts

Why the Church of Scientology Gets Away with Flagrantly Abusing and Harming its Own Members and How to Stop It.

An excerpt from our second article:

Churches, temples, mosques, and ashrams are free to determine their own internal form of government, rules, and discipline. The government is prohibited from intruding into these ecclesiastical matters. The First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution guarantees these rights. In the legal case Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese, Etc. v. Milivojevich, the Court stated:

“…the First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government, and to create tribunals for adjudicating disputes over these matters. When this choice is exercised and ecclesiastical tribunals are created to decide disputes over the government and direction of subordinate bodies, the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions as binding upon them.”

So long as the “rules and regulations for internal discipline and government” do not violate US law, the members of a religious group can be subjected to harsh ecclesiastical tribunals, severe punishments, and even the humiliating public disclosure of their sins and the US courts cannot do anything about it. This is the dark side of “freedom of religion.”

Judge Whittemore cited Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese, Etc. v. Milivojevich in his ruling in Garcia.

In our opinion, Judge Whittemore issued an intellectually lazy and judicially incompetent ruling. Rather than focusing on the bad faith of Scientology during the entire arbitration process — which is a serious issue — he simply took the easy way out.

An exhausted old cow can’t deliberate properly: A perfect metaphor for Judge James Whittemore’s ruling in Garcia.

Had Scientology’s attorneys known in advance that Judge Whittemore was so slovenly, they would have had Scientology’s arbitrators throw chicken bones on the floor; read the patterns; deny the Garcia’s any award; and have this chicken bone ecclesiastical procedure confirmed by Scientology’s IJC Mike Ellis. Judge Whittemore would have accepted their decision and issued the exact same ruling: The court may not interfere. Whittemore is 66 years old. He needs to be put out to pasture like an old cow before he does further judicial damage to other parties in his lackadaisical dotage. The poor old boy is tired.

SCIENTOLOGY: BAD FAITH, DIRTY CONTRACTS, BROKEN DREAMS

Although the Garcia’s lost in what was a sham arbitration, the Church of Scientology lost in a much bigger way. What the world saw in Garcia was Scientology’s bad faith and lies at work. For example, the Garcia’s were fraudulently induced to donate $65,000 to cover the costs of placing the Scientology cross atop the Super Power Building. This same fraudulent inducement was propounded to other Scientology by Scientology’s dishonest and predatory registrars (sales people)

Scientology’s registrars and certain other public-facing staff members can be so craven and dishonest that the Church of Scientology had to write a specific policy in which it does not stand behind any statements made by any of its staff members:

Laura DeCrescenzo prevailed in her case because Scientology’s conduct was so abhorrent that it appears to have exceeded First Amendment religious protections and, in this writer’s opinion, to have crossed the line into criminality. In any event, Scientology did not want to risk appearing in a public court of law where a jury would hear a shocking litany of horrific acts Scientology perpetrated against a young woman.

And under all circumstances, Scientology could not risk having David Miscavige placed on the stand. This is because the entire operating basis of the Church of Scientology is to protect David Miscavige from the consequences of his own actions. The same operating basis was at work when L. Ron Hubbard was alive and in control of the Church. The coddled and brutal tyrants at the top of the Scientology crime syndicate must always be protected at all costs. Mary Sue Hubbard learned this the hard way as has Shelly Miscavige.

In my view, the Church of Scientology lied to and swindled the Garcia’s out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and got away with it due to its First Amendment protections. The same holds true of the many people Scientology has swindled out of money these people have placed as “Monies on Account.” The fact is that there is no such thing as “Monies on Account” in Scientology. The actual contract Scientologists sign characterizes the monies as irrevocable donations and states that Scientology is under no obligation to return it. Again, this emphasizes why the IRS must move to revoke Scientology’s tax exemption.

The bad faith, lies, greed, hostility, and malice the Church of Scientology continually exhibits towards its own members is contained in the series of dirty contracts Scientologists must sign at every step of their journey up the falsely named “Bridge to Total Freedom.”

Bottom Line: No one should ever sign any contract with the Church of Scientology — and no one should ever donate money to this already wealthy and dishonest organization.

There is no Bridge to Total Freedom in Scientology.

There is only a Bridge to Total Slavery and Ruination.

Judge Whittemore’s Ruling in Garcia:

Garcia-v-Scientology-Order-denying-Garcia-motion

Evidence of a Targeted Scientology Threat Against an Individual

Aaron Smith-Levin tweeted a letter from the Church of Scientology to a private individual. That person gave Aaron permission to publicly repost this letter and we do so here at the Scientology Money Project.

This letter from Scientology is a threat, a form of psychological intimidation against Anthony Nelson and his wife. Scientology clearly accuses Nelson’s wife as being the reason he is no longer doing Scientology.

This letter is an explicit attempt by Scientology to interfere in a marriage by characterizing Nelson’s wife as someone who is preventing her husband from going forward in Scientology. In other words, Scientology is calling her an SP. As such, the letter tacitly asserts Scientology doctrine of Fair Game in which SP’s may be tricked, lied to, and destroyed.

Given Nelson’s knowledge of Scientology Office of Special Affairs and its ability to conduct Fair Game operations against persons deemed SP’s, this letter is a thinly-veiled threat that Nelson’s wife should stop interfering with him doing Scientology. The Church arrogantly presumes that Mr. Nelson would go forward with Scientology were it not for his SP wife.

This is a truly creepy, threatening, and disturbing letter:

Scientologist Stacy Francis: Using Fake Twitter Followers to Attack Leah Remini

Scientologist Stacy Francis and one of her fake Twitter followers named Shahd Abdelgawad. The clickfarm from which Scientology purchased this follower was too lazy to even post a photo of the nonexistent follower. This fake follower joined in July 2018, a date coincident with Stacy Francis’ Fair Game attacks on Leah Remini.

Scientology TV is a failure.

With Leah Remini’s show Scientology and the Aftermath going into season 3, Scientology dictator David Miscavige and his followers are panicked and have kicked their sleazy Fair Game campaigns into high gear on “wog” social media.

What this amply proves is that Miscavige’s $100 million dollar Scientology TV has no actual reach or audience. If Scientology TV had an audience then Miscavige would not be forced to use secular social media to press Scientology’s Fair Game attacks.

In the Cult’s latest social media attack on Leah Remini, Scientologist Stacy Francis has been deployed. Francis made an extremely disgusting and dishonest attack video about Leah. This is not surprising as Scientologists blindly obey and do whatever Scientology orders them to do. This blind obedience is one of the reasons Scientology is considered a Cult.

STACY FRANCIS?

If you’ve never heard of Stacy Francis you’re not alone. Like her fellow Scientologist Jim Meskimen, Stacy never made it into the big leagues of celebrity. The 49 year old Francis is best known for her 2011 appearance on X Factor where Simon Cowell praised her initial signing audition. However, Simon later cast the deciding vote and sent Stacy Francis home. Stacy placed 10th overall in the competition. In an elimination round, Stacy Francis lost to a 14 year old prodigy named Brian Bradley whose stage name is Astro.

Whitney Houston (1963-2012)

Stacy Francis is infamous for having gotten into a heated fight with legendary pop signer Whitney Houston at a nightclub two days before Houston’s tragic and untimely death in 2012. Whitney’s fans have never forgiven Stacy Francis for belligerently attacking Whitney when the singer was obviously in very bad shape two days before her death.

Stacy Francis is an angry person and Scientology seems to have not helped her at all her with her anger issues.

After X Factor, Stacy Francis continued singing but she never got a big record deal. X Factor was the height of Francis’ career and her fortunes declined thereafter. Stacy Francis seems to have been largely relegated to singing at Scientology events. She sang at Tom Cruise’s birthday on The Freewinds and has sang at the Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood numerous times.

Left: Even in Scientology circles Stacy Francis does not enjoy any real popularity. Her recent April 29, 2018 appearance at Scientology’s Hibiscus Restaurant in Clearwater only drew 21 people who showed any interest.

After X Factor in 2011, Stacy Francis’ next foray into the spotlight was in 2017 on the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) television program. Whitney Houston’s fans vociferously objected as a 2017 story in the Daily Mail reported.

Celebrity Big Brother did not go well for Stacy Francis and she was evicted from the Celebrity house. This series of clips from her appearance on the show displays the angry and profanity-laden outbursts that led to Stacy’s eviction from the Celebrity House:

STACY FRANCIS THE FLIP-FLOPPER

In 2016, Francis sang for Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Her over-singing and lackluster performance there failed to get the singer any traction or record deal.

In this same period of time Joy Villa was a Bernie Sanders supporter. Everything changed for Joy when she wore Andre Soriano’s MAGA dress to the 2017 Grammys. Suddenly, Scientologist Joy Villa was thrust into the spotlight and jumped on the Trump Train to ride it for all it’s worth.

In 2018 Stacy Francis followed Joy Villa and jumped ship. She abandoned Hillary and crossed over to the Trump-Evangelical Christian-GOP side of things in hopes that she would fare better there. And so we saw Scientologists Joy Villa and Stacy Francis showing up to sing and speak at Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition “Road to Majority” Event in June 2018.

Stacy Francis suddenly transformed from a Pro-Abortion Hillary Democrat to a Pro-Life Trump Republican who wants to Make America Great Again. In Scientology, this is called being a flip-flopper. Stacy Francis can’t “hold a position in space” as Hubbard admonished his followers to do.

Like Joy Villa, Stacy Francis is a Scientology opportunist who will be whatever she needs to be to get an audience and safepoint Scientology: Democrat; Republican; Evangelical Christian; LGBTQ supporter; Hillary supporter; Bernie supporter; Pro-Abortion; Pro-Life; Trump supporter, etc. Whatever it takes. But underneath it all, both Joy and Stacy’s real loyalty is to the Church of Scientology.

STACY FRANCIS’ PHONY TWITTER FOLLOWERS

Stacy Francis has purchased fake Twitter followers for herself as her page shows:

The reason we know these are fake followers is that Stacy’s pinned tweet only has 10 likes. It is impossible to have 269,000 real followers and have your pinned tweet that’s been up for two weeks receive only 10 likes:

Due to Stacy Francis’ relative obscurity as a celebrity, Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs has had to purchase additional fake followers for Stacy. Most of Stacy Francis’ fake followers are factory fresh and were created in foreign clickfarms within the past two months.

In three of the fake profiles shown below, the first comment is written in Russian on July 3rd by the same fake person named Daria Stepanova. There is no quality control at work in Scientology’s social media fraud. This is sloppy work that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Here are a few of Stacy Francis’ fake followers: